Assigned Partners

Chapter 22

trigger warning: brief suicide mentions, violence

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When I returned back home after our camping trip, I decided to check on my Tumblr after I got home. Because of all the time spent with Normani since we started talking, I hadn't been on it all that often. It was always the place I'd go just to escape for a bit. I logged in on my laptop, and was surprised to see a red notification over my inbox. Apparently there were two new messages.

One of them was one of those irritating 'test my new game' messages. I deleted that one, obviously. But when I looked at the other one, I bit my lip. One was from Adrienne. 'Haven't seen you at school, did you finally end up getting rid of yourself like we all wanted?'

I almost wondered how she even knew what my Tumblr was, but she probably just found my Twitter and got it from there since I've got it linked. I was angry when I read it. I had nothing to say to it, I couldn't bring myself to answer her.

So instead, I just published the ask with no response, and logged out.

The next day was Friday, and I had to be back at school since I had missed Wednesday and Thursday. I headed to music class and sat down with the girls. It was nice to see all of their smiling faces. Normani was next to me and she took my hand, squeezing it gently.

"How was it?" Camila asked.

"It was actually a lot of fun," I told her. It was fun. We had time to talk, and cuddle. We cooked over a fire, I saved Normani from a spider. We had sex, and we spent a little time at the beach too before we left. "I couldn't have asked for something better."

"That's sweet. It's good to see you smiling so much, Lo," Ally told me.

Ms. Callahan tapped on the music stand at the front of the room to get everyone's attention. She was holding a small pile of papers in her hands, and she smiled.

"You all did a wonderful job with the last assignment. It was nice to see you all showcasing what you're capable, while working with people you may not have been too familiar with," she said, looking right at Normani and I. "I'm going to give you your grades, and I doubt any of you will be too disappointed." she told us, before coming around to hand out the papers.

As she handed one to me, and one to Normani, we held them side by side and grinned. We totally aced the assignment. Ms. Callahan thought that we did an amazing job, and she was happy to see me come out of my shell a bit for the performance. Dinah, Ally, and Camila all did really well too. I knew they would, they all sounded really good together.

"It's Friday night, I think we should celebrate together tonight. You know, because we all did so well, and because we just need to hang out together again. Sleepover? We could do it at my place. My parents are taking Sofi out for the weekend with a few of her little friends so they can go to a water park a few hours away," Camila suggested.

"I'm sure my mom will be cool with that," Normani said.

"I'll have to ask my parents. I'll call them after class and ask," I told her, and Dinah nodded.

"I'm going to have to ask too, I don't know if I'll have to babysit the sibs tonight," she told us, groaning. "Hopefully I can go though."

"My parents probably won't mind," Ally informed us.

Camila grinned. "Alright, cool. So, just let me know what they all say, and if it's cool, you could get your stuff after school and just come on over."

We nodded, and Ms. Callahan proceeded with class, instructing everyone to set up their instruments.

After class ended, I called my dad. He was cool with me going to Camila's. I sent Camila a text to let her know that I could go, and then just proceeded with the rest of my day. I didn't miss too much while I was away, thankfully. It would be simple to get caught up before Monday. I could just do it all on Saturday night, or on Sunday. I was just excited to get to spend the time after school with all of my friends.