Firsts & Lasts

Last Christmas.

Novalee

Maddy and I throw away our empty cups which once had ice cream in them. Vanilla for me, chocolate for her. The ice cream shop we've come to love, Lily's, was nearly empty. It's about two hours after the game now, 8 pm and the sun is starting to go down. The city is still wide awake, even more than usual since it's Saturday night.

"I think I should cancel on Jaylon tonight," Maddy says as we walk back to my car. I unlock the car and buckle my seatbelt as soon as I'm in. "Why?" I ask, furrowing my brows. I start the car and pull out of the ice cream shop with ease. She shrugs, "I don't know. I don't think I'm feeling him anymore." She pouts. "Then dump him," I say. She looks out the window like she's thinking about it. "Nah, I'll see him one last time." She pulls out her phone and starts to text.

I laugh a bit, shaking my head. A couple of seconds later, my own phone dings. I look down at my lap, where it lays, to see who it is. Cgc. I wait until we reach a red light to pick up my phone.

Cgc: Hey, come over?

Valdez may or may not be on his SECOND joint

That means something's wrong SOS.

I furrow my brows and respond.

Me: do you know what happened? is it bc you guys lost?

He replies quickly.

Cgc: No.

I'll let him tell you

The light turns green, so I don't get a chance to reply. I turn to Maddy briefly and she's still entranced by her phone. "Hey, I'm going to Chris's for a bit, do you want to come or do I drop you off?" I ask. She doesn't look at me but shakes her head. "No, I need to go home and change. Jaylon's picking me up in an hour." I nod and start heading towards the school.

+

I texted Cgc back that I was on my way once I dropped off Maddy. He said he would leave the door unlocked for me and that Valdez and Xander were both in the backyard. Smoking. If it's not obvious, I've never smoked before. It's not my thing, but I don't judge people for doing it. I think it would actually help me with a lot of things actually, but I've always been too scared to try it for some reason.

When I walk into the house, it's empty. My eyes flit to the kitchen where the door to the backyard is slightly ajar. It's quiet though, no voices fill my ears. I open the door and both Xander and Chris look towards me. "Hey," I say. I sit down on the chair that's in front of both of them. Chris' eyes droop heavily, Xander looks fine. I have been to enough parties to know how someone looks when they're high. Chris is, but Xander is not.

Chris blows out another puff of smoke and Xander looks at me. Help me, he mouths. Yeah, he's not even buzzed. I motion my head for him to leave and he does. Chris doesn't even budge. When Xander closes the door, he looks toward the door again, then back at me. "Hey." He finally says. I lean back into the chair as I watch him carefully. The joint in between his fingers is only halfway finished.

He's told me before that he doesn't like drinking much and doesn't smoke at all during the season. Like Cgc said earlier, something must have happened. Though I don't want to blame it on the loss from earlier because when Maddy and I ran into him and the guys briefly, he didn't seem upset.

I lean forward and take the joint from his fingers just before he can take another drag. "May I?" I say as I sit back down onto the chair. He looks at me, no expression on his face, and shrugs. "I mean, you already took it from me, so yeah." He says dryly. I look at the joint for a second and start regretting my decision. The only reason I took it away from him was to get him to stop smoking.