“Hi,” Sara says, failing to contain her wonder.
I sigh to myself. Wally is much better-looking now than he was as a gawky tween, and she was thoroughly hung up on him even then. I didn’t at all understand what she saw in him when we were in middle school. I still don’t, really. He’s handsome, I guess, but I still don’t think there’s anything special about him.
Sara can’t be convinced, even though I’m still not sure he knows her name.
He lifts his chin in bland acknowledgment. “What’s up?” Without giving her a chance to get the mistaken impression he cares about a response, he shifts his gaze to Anderson. “You lost, Milner? Our table’s over there,” he says, pointing back at Hunter’s table.
“Oh, yeah, I saw. No, I actually figured I’d sit with my girlfriend today. First day and all.”
“How cute,” he says, his tone making it clear he doesn’t find it cute. “Well, maybe you should reconsider. Hunter had catering brought in for all of us to celebrate his first day back. It’s a lot better than this crap,” he says, making a dismissive gesture toward the tray full of standard cafeteria fare.
“Can I get catering for them, too?”
Wally looks from Sara to me, his gaze cooling when it hits my face, then he looks back at Anderson. “No.”
“Then I’m all right,” Anderson says.
Wally smiles, but it’s a smile that says he’s losing his patience. Placing a hand on Anderson’s shoulder and squeezing, he leans down. “Maybe I’m not making myself clear. You can’t sit with them.”
Anderson stares at him, not defiantly, just confused. “Why not?”
Wally licks his lip and chuckles, looking down. “You haven’t heard about—”
“Anderson,” I interrupt, before Wally can tell him something I haven’t had a chance to yet. “Just… go. They’re your teammates, it’s the first day of a new school year. You should sit with them.”
Anderson frowns at me. “I should?”
“There’s catering,” I say brightly.
“Who cares?”
“Please go,” I say, pleading with my eyes. “I told you they probably wouldn’t like you sitting with me. It’s not worth it.”
“I don’t understand,” he says, shaking his head.
“You don’t need to understand,” Wally assures him, giving him a pat on the back. “Up. Let’s go.”
Anderson frowns at me, but since I’m shooing him away instead of hoping he’ll stay, he grabs his tray and stands.
“Well… I guess I’m gonna go sit with them.”
I nod my head. “Have fun.”
I watch them walk away together, two broad-shouldered letter jackets heading back toward the popular table where they both belong. Wally grabs Anderson’s tray on the way and tosses the whole thing into a trash can. A lunch monitor has to dig the plastic tray out of the trash and haul it to the kitchen to be cleaned.
I stop watching when they approach Hunter’s table.
I sigh, looking back at Sara.
I’ve lost her, though. She’s sitting there with her chin propped on her palm, gazing in that direction. Judging by the look of yearning on her face, I figure she’s gazing at Wally.
I look over there again, but only to verify my suspicions.
Sure enough, her gaze is glued to Wally. He’s at the main table, of course, right next to Hunter.
Since I’m already looking, I figure I may as well peek at Hunter again...
I’m curious. I want to see if he interacts with Anderson, see if he’s at least nice to him since he just forced him to sit at their table.
I’m not an idiot; I know Wally didn’t come over here on his own.
When I look again, Anderson is searching for a seat after grabbing food from the catering spread.
Turns out, there’s no room for him at the table, after all. I mean, there could be, if everyone moved down a little, but they don’t.
He stands there, looking lost for a minute, before one of Valerie’s lackeys grabs him by the shoulder and beams up at him, leading him over to the run-off popular table. It’s where you sit if you’re in the vicinity of the jocks, but not important enough for the main friend tables.
My stomach twists with guilt. Maybe I shouldn’t have made him go over there. They’re probably shunning him a little now to punish him for sitting with me in the first place.
Or maybe Hunter just doesn’t want to sit at the same table as my boyfriend.
Whichever it is, I don’t feel like I sent Anderson to a better place.
Chapter Fifteen
Riley
Homework tonight is a nightmare.
I can’t focus at all.
I need to finish my reading for history class, but every effort I make to concentrate fails spectacularly. I can only focus for about three seconds, then my mind splinters off in a thousand different directions—most of them, unfortunately, Hunter-related.
I think about how close our bridge is. How close his house is. How close he is.
Why did he want to know my schedule? What does he want with me?
Why did he come back? How long has he been back?
It was summer, so I guess he could have been here longer than I realized. It’s not like I was looking for him, but I never saw him around town.
Then again, I guess I don’t really pay that much attention. I’m off in my own little world more often than not—it was an easy habit to get into since it’s preferable to be ignored by my peers these days. When I have their attention, it’s never anything good.
I’m sure he doesn’t have the same number, but I find myself pulling out my phone and looking at his name in my contacts anyway. It was stupid and sentimental since he left the country, but I never deleted it.
For the longest time, I told myself maybe he would cool down and reach out to me.
If he apologized for that lie he told about me, I would have forgiven him. I knew he was hurt, maybe even scared. I understood him being angry with me. I was only trying to protect him, but in doing so, I did turn his whole life upside down.
I kinda want to talk to him. We talked a little in school, obviously, but I don’t want to talk to him there. I want to talk to him like I used to talk to him, when we were the only two people in the world and he trusted me enough to open up.
He doesn’t trust me anymore, though. I want something I can’t have.
Maybe I could get his trust back. Maybe after all this time, now that he’s home and it seems kinda permanent…
Maybe I just need to talk to him.
I set the phone aside and sigh, glancing at my school books.
There’s no point sitting here wasting more time trying to focus when I just can’t.
Maybe if I go for a walk, my head will clear. Then I can come home and concentrate so I can finally get this reading done.
And if I happen to take a walk that takes me through the woods behind Hunter’s house… well, where else would I walk to get a little peace and quiet?
Feeling rejuvenated, I put my hair up in a ponytail and smear some gloss on my lips. I eye myself in the mirror as I apply it, but I tell myself to shut up—it’s just to protect my lips from the wind, that’s all.