The Way We Say Goodbye

Chapter 3

As much as I tried to fight it, my thoughts were still focused on the strange apology from the day before. I walked through the day in a haze, and before I knew it, I was half-way through the lunch period with my friends staring at me. I was pulled from the thoughts by a hand waving in front of my face. I swatted the hand away and looked around the table, met with curious faces.

Violet pulled her hand away from me and asked, "You okay, Dee? You've, like, zoned out the entire conversation."

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Just have some stuff on my mind." I glanced at Joshua as I said this, and he had a mild look of concern directed at me.

"You sure you're okay?" Joshua asked.

"Uh, yeah," I drew out. "I just keep thinking about what we talked about yesterday."

"Oooo," Marco sounded, suggestively, while waggling his eyebrows and looking between us.

Joshua punched his brother, mumbling at him to shut up. Joshua directed his attention back at me. "Do you wanna open up the discussion to the whole table?"

Before I could respond, Scarlet interjected herself into the conversation. "Well, you don't really have an option now, do you? If you wanted the convo to stay private, should've kept it in the bedroom." Scarlet often insinuated that Joshua and I were secretly sleeping together.

I rolled my eyes and mumbled, "Whatever." I cleared my throat before summarizing the events from the day before in a louder voice.

Scarlet was playing with her salad with her fork, looking uninterested in the conversation. "So, who was the loser who apologized for his friends?"

I looked at Scarlet, and I hesitated to tell her his name. Scarlet tended to be critical of others. For reasons I did not know or understand, I didn't want Scarlet to speak poorly of Osbourne. I took a breath and said, "His name is Osbourne."

Scarlet scoffed, "You don't mean Osbourne Jackson?"

As much as I had wished that she didn't, I wasn't surprised that Scarlet knew who he was. Scarlet knew the names of nearly everyone at school. She always said that knowledge was power, and she believed the more people you knew, the more power you had and more power you had over others.

A sudden nervousness had washed over me, and I hesitantly responded, "Uh, yeah."

Scarlet rolled her eyes, "Of course a dweeb like him would apologize for someone else. Just forget about it, Del. He's a loser, a nobody. He's definitely not worth worrying over."

"How do you know him, Scar?" Joshua cut in.

Scarlet looked up at him and paused. She went back to her salad before continuing. "You guys remember when I lived over in Everett?"

"Yeah, how could we forget that shitty place? We all were worried you'd get shot there," Marco chimed in.

Scarlet nodded, "Yeah, well, Osbourne lived in the same apartment building. As far as I know, he still lives somewhere in Everett. Although, I heard he's living in a house on the better side now. Not that it matters." She set her fork down, now finished with her salad. "He's just a loser who's going nowhere in life. He'll always be stuck in Everett." Before Scarlet could go on anymore, the bell rang, dismissing us from lunch.

I slowly stood up and gathered my trash, intentionally lagging behind everyone else at the table. I continued to drag my feet to throw my trash away and to head to my locker. As I exited the cafeteria, I came face-to-face with Joshua, who had been waiting for me to come out. He bumped my shoulder with his as we walked towards the lockers. "You okay?"