Closer When We Should be Far

003

enid's pov

 when i got to nevermore it was so full of people rushing into the hall to eat i was nearly knocked over the moment i got out of the ford angelina. that may have been between the oncoming rampage of stampeding people and the fact that my mom chucked my bags out at me and drove off, though. 

 i just grabbed my stuff and went into the school. people were still arriving, all evening, and it being fall and the middle of a chilly september it was cold and brisk outside. i pushed my way into the dorm, where i saw thing busying himself on wednesday's bed. "oh, hi, thing!" i said. "is wednesday here or off gallivanting in the woods again?"

 he pointed outside, off the balcony. i nodded. "okay, i'll go find her at dinner, see you later!" i went downstairs again and found a seat at an empty table. yoko came and sat across from me, smiling. "hey, enid," she said. i grinned. "hey, yoko!" the rest of the gang-divina, bianca, xavier, ajax, kent, and eugene-came and sat, filling the table to my left but leaving two empty spaces on the end. eugene sat down next to me, smiling; xavier next to him and ajax on xavier's other side, with divina next to yoko, bianca with her and kent next to bianca.

 my eyes were scanning the hall for when wednesday would come, waiting to see her again, before i realized my boyfriend was not sitting next to me but laughing with his best friend. i just ignored this and searched for wednesday. finally i saw her-but she was with someone else? oh my fucking lordie of chickens, not another tyler.

 i swear on my life if we get another tyler i am not letting wednesday out of my sight for the rest of our lives. like seriously. i knew she was super smart but guess what, wednesday, he looks like tyler. except better. in the sense that he had glasses, which meant he knew things, and his hair was black. and instead of tyler's HOST of MANY MANY UNNECESSARILY MANY SHIRTS he had piled on top of each other this new guy only had a maroon hoodie.

 still. then i saw how they were looking at each other. for the new guy it was the way tyler and xavier looked at her. with just pure affection and gentle please-stay-with-me eyes. and the way she looked at him was kind of a mix between the way she looked at thing and the way she looked BACK at xavier that rare moment of parting seven months ago. first thing in the morning before we'd gone off together, she'd nearly smiled at him, making him laugh. and now that kind of mutual i-see-you was there, along with the way she looked at thing in the way she saw him as family and under her protection.

 "who the fuck is that?" i growled. yoko, across from me and deep in conversation with divina about some new rumors about a new crush xavier was being rumored to have

, looked around at him. "wednesday's long-lost lover," she said casually, adjusting her sunglasses slightly before turning back to us. "lover?!" i said. she made LOWER-YOUR-VOICE-DUMBO motions with her hands, and i realized i'd yelled. "lover?" i whispered again, more fiercely.

 "long-lost lover," she repeated. "i saw them on the balcony earlier, their voices were echoing. she, being wednesday, said 'who the fuck are you', and he said, 'i see you havent changed much since our first kiss when we were thirteen', and then she just totally flung herself at him and he held her and hugged her and stuff. im glad shes moving on from that normie idiot tyson or whatever he was called, honestly. im glad we can all move on and start acting like normal people again!"

 she laughed and went back to her conversation, but i kept watching them as he came to sit next to yoko, across from wednesday sliding into the bench next to me. "oh my gosh hi!" i said happily, forgetting everything for a moment. "hello, enid," she said softly. i grinned. "oh, hi," said eugene. "what's your name?"

 "hello, guys, i'm joel," he said. we all went around introducing ourselves, and he smiled and nodded at all of us. i only spoke briefly, watching him with narrowed eyes slightly. wednesday whispered, "he's all right," and i stopped, knowing shed noticed, but i couldnt shake off a feeling i got from him.