Twinkle

II

As Grace struggled to spread peanut butter over one of the slices of toast she had prepared for herself and Zach, she couldn't stop her hands from shaking. The spread was uneven and shaky, and she'd managed to poke more holes in the bread than she had managed to cover it.

"Are you feeling alright, Gracie?" her dad asked with concern from the kitchen table. His dark hair was still wet and had begun to drip onto the collar of his button down shirt.

Instead of answering, Grace frowned a little and grabbed one a dish towel from their drawer and draped it over her father's shoulders. "You need a haircut."

"Ooh, avoidance. You're either fighting with Mel or this is about a boy."

Face flushing, Grace turned away quickly from her father, going back to her holey toast. She placed each slice on a napkin and then stacked them on top of each other, balancing that on one hand while she slung her backpack over her shoulder with the other. "I'm going to be late," was her only reply as she headed out the door as quickly as she could.

When she turned away from the front door to head over to the Duncan house, she stopped dead in her tracks, the surprise forcing her toast out of her hand and to the ground.

Zachary's green truck was gone.

Caught somewhere between severe disappointment, overwhelming relief, and a healthy dose of anger mixed with bewilderment, Grace could do nothing but stand there dumbfounded for a few moments as she tried to gather her thoughts. Why would he leave without her? Why would he leave without her without saying anything?

With hands that were shaking more from intense emotion rather than nervousness, she scooped up her ruined breakfast from the driveway and dumped it in the trash can to the side of her house before climbing into her own car and heading out. It was odd driving herself to school, alone, without Zachary's obnoxious country music blasting through the speakers. Something about it made an empty space in the middle of her chest appear, sending a breathless cold sensation blasting through her. She flipped the heat on, and turned her radio to a country station, half-heartedly singing along to whatever came on as she made her way to school, alone, for the first time in months.

***

Despite being late, Grace took her time finding a parking spot so that she could scan the lot for Zach's truck. She had it in her mind that, given the opportunity, she would give that boy a piece of her mind. Her preliminary scan came up empty, but there was always the chance that he had parked in one of the smaller lots to the side, or near the sports fields instead.

During lunch, she swept the room with her eyes again, but didn't turn up that familiar blond head.

"I'm guessing from the lack of a blond kid next to you, that yesterday did not go well," Melody commented, following Grace's gaze around the room. "I haven't seen him at all today."

Grace settled back onto the bench seat and sighed, poking absentmindedly at the greasy slice of pizza in front of her. "You could say that."

A few beats of silenced passed before Grace felt a nudge on her shin. "So, are you going to tell me about it or are you going to leave me in the dark here? I did save you yesterday, so I think I at least deserve a quick run down of how it all went down."

"Do you want the long version or the short version?"

"Short; 'cause it looks like James Calloway is coming this way, and I don't know if you want him to hear this too."

"James who—?" Grace followed Melody's line of sight and saw Zach's friend who'd hosted the end of the year party in May heading towards their table from across the room. His dark hair, usually kept longer and kind of shaggy, had been shaved on the sides and he'd apparently added some weight to his frame over the summer. Odd that she hadn't really noticed him before this given all the time she spent with Zachary.