The Senior Trip

Chapter 59

Harper

I couldn't look at him. I couldn't watch him fade from the window. It's midnight now and my mind is spinning. Ezra is bundled up, his eyes peeking out from the blanket he has covering most of his face. Finn is splayed out on the other end of the couch, his face in his phone. He hasn't seen any of the movie. Looks like he has his own drama happening on that little screen in his hand. And for the first time in a long time, I don't care what it is.

Does he know? It's all I can think about. I don't even have his number. And what if he doesn't? I can't tell him, right?

"I'm taking off for a little bit. If mom and dad ask, I'll be back around 2," Finns says.

I try to remember what it felt like to be infatuated with him, but now I don't even respect him. He isn't the Finn I thought he was. That hurt worse than pinning after him for years. Unrequited love stings something fierce, but so does having to change the way you think about someone. For years I've built this model of him in my head, and now I have to knock it down and start over.

"Sure," Ezra says, his eye glued to the killer on the screen hunting his prey in the large beach house.

I sigh.

"What?" Ezra asks.

"Nothing," I tell him.

"That sigh was so heavy it almost crushed me. Fess up."

"It's just...I didn't think he was 'that guy." I confess.

"Been telling you for years. He's an ass. You've just refused to believe me. No one with an empathy purposely breaks your toothpick bridge with zero remorse," Ezra states.

"You will never let that go," I tell him. The image of us running in from playing in the sprinklers to find his math project in a hundred pieces on the kitchen counter.

"He didn't do that on purpose," I defend. But honestly, I don't know anymore. I think my puppy love for him had me overlooking some pretty big red flags.

"Oh, ok," Ezra says sarcastically. He then adds an exaggerated wink. It makes me laugh.

"I just don't get it," I tell him.

"High school sweethearts never work out. It's old We aren't doing that anymore. Finn and Molly were destined to break-up."

The killer on the screen enters the dark room where his intended victim is waiting. Ezra's attention goes back the screen.

"But Jess?" I ask in disbelief.

"Yea that caught me by surprise too," he answers, his attention still on the large knife in the killer's hand.

"I feel bad for Asher," I tell him. And that's really the whole thing. I don't care what Finn does anymore. I just don't want Asher to be hurting.

"Oh...bad?....That's what you feel for Asher?" he says teasingly. He pulls the covers down to I can see his entire face.

"Shut up," I say.

"Never. Just hit him up on social media. Why are you acting like a boomer that can't figure out that finding someone online is as easy as a few swipes of your finger?"

But what if he doesn't know. What if he finally got Jess back and he can live in blissful ignorance. I'm not going to tramp that garden.

"I don't think I can be nice to her if he brings her over," I say stubbornly.

"Who?" he says distracted again.

"Jess!" I shout.

On screen the killer reaches for the woman under the bed, but she quickly moves her leg and escapes her fate this one time.

"Jess?" he says, "He's going to see Molly. Been feverishly texting her for the entire movie. Duh."

"What?" I ask.

"Like I said, ASSHOLE."

And finally, on the screen, the killer gets his girl. Ezra and I both scream. It seems I'm as blind to what's happening around me as we are to the inevitable end to every slasher movie.