Playing His Game

Chapter Thirty-Two | Thru and Thru

Thirty-Two:

"Yes, Lauren, I swear I'm okay," I spoke into my phone that was held loosely against my ear, Lauren's shrill voice enough to give me a headache as she repeatedly asked about the incident at the party.

Mostly due to the fact that I'd barely talked to anyone since it happened, Lauren was missing most of the details.

She, and everyone else, was mad at the fact that I'd gone back to being a shut-in, but it wasn't entirely my fault. I'd started the new year off with a wonderful cold, which was the main reason I missed out on ice skating and two more parties.

That wasn't really a big deal for me because my coordination and overall sportiness was at an all time low, save for the occasional runs I liked to go on.

I spent the past week and now the last weekend before school started wrapped up in bed, wadded up tissues being my only company. Sunday night was no exception.

"All I saw was you slapping him and walking away. He hasn't told me shit so I'm asking you, what the hell happened?"

"Honestly, I-" I stopped short to let out a loud cough, my lungs beginning to burn with the effort. "I don't know. He just ran into me and kissed me."

"Jesus, you sound like shit. He kissed you?" She sounded unsurprised, and oddly pleased.

I frowned into my phone, switching hands to hold it up and letting out an annoyed huff of air. "Yeah, which is totally messed up. He slept with Grace!"

Lauren let out a sigh of her own. "I know...did he say anything? Or just, like, go for it?"

"He didn't say anything. That's fine, though, because I wouldn't want to hear it, anyway."

"Ugh," she groaned. "This whole thing is just so messed up."

"That's not my fault," I answered, quickly growing annoyed with the way she seemed to be subtly defending him. My eyes followed the longest hand of the clock on my wall, watching as the seconds slowly ticked by.

"You know what?" I asked after another 3 seconds passed. "It doesn't even matter. We can go back to how things were before and I can just ignore him."

"Well, I think that-"

I cut off her answer with another loud cough, this one more forced. "Hey, I gotta go. I'll see you in the morning, okay?"

She sounded unsettled, barely getting out her goodbye before I rushed to hang up the phone. I let my head flop back with a sigh. What was my life turning into these days?

...

I could blame it on the comfy leather seats, or even the heater that worked exceptionally well, but I ended up staying in my car until the warning bell rang and I had two minutes to get to class.

My morning classes ended up flying by extremely fast, which was a relief because I was in no mood for AP psychology, calculus, or even drawing.

Lauren and Tyler were already in their seats when I walked through the door of our English class. Mr. Brooks stopped me to give a half-hearted "welcome back", which I thanked with the same amount of enthusiasm.

"Feeling better?" Lauren asked as I slid into the desk next to hers. I almost sighed with relief when it was obvious she wasn't mad at the way I'd practically hung up on her last night.

I responded with a sniffle, making her crack a smile. "Better than I was," I answered honestly. Whether I was addressing my cold or my heart-ache, I wasn't sure.