The Cliche Gone Wrong

Chapter Thirty

This is the third day she's ignored me.

Even now I have to watch her hurry across the parking lot with her sister trailing behind her, that permanent scowl on her face as she pushes past every person and car in her way. I'm tempted to stop her before she can get to her car but I don't want a repeat of what happened Wednesday before class, or yesterday during lunch......or yesterday after school. So instead I let her leave without any problems, ignoring the group of people that chatter animatedly about the basketball game tonight. My car sways as someone leans against it next to me.

"You're coming to the game tonight, right?" Alan asks, his voice low despite the noise around us. "It's the last home game of the season."

"I don't really feel like it." I brush off his question, my eyes following that beat up van as it rolls its way out of the parking lot. "I'll probably just stay in tonight."

"Stay in?" He looks at me suspiciously. "I don't think you've stayed in a single Friday since we started high school. Why today?"

I breathe deeply, the van now out of sight and my anxiety rising even more. "Does it even matter?"

He doesn't respond to that, although I can feel the worry in his stare. I hate it when he gets all observant like this. I sigh again before I straighten up and stretch my arms high above my head.

"You hungry?" I ask Alan, although this catches the attention of some of the other people standing around. "I could go for some barbeque."

He shakes his head spouting some excuse about not eating a heavy meal before a game, which I always thought was funny because I do the exact opposite before every Lacrosse game I've ever played, pigging out to the point where I fall asleep and wake up just in time to walk out onto the field. Oh shit I've missed both conditioning practices this week. Coach is going to fucking kill me.

I just add that to the ever-growing list of things I keep fucking up as I shrug at Alan. A few of the other people around us voice that they'd be down for barbeque, but I'm not in the mood to hang out with them. Alan would is the only exception when I'm in one of these moods. I've known him for so long that we don't even have to talk to each other most of the time, which comes in quite handy when I don't want to talk to anybody. I ignore them all as I unlock my BMW, preparing to leave and head home but Alan stops me.

"Jude, I'm kind of worried about you." I turn back to look at him. "You've been acting weird for the last week. What's up?"

I look at him closely as I open the car door. He always fucking knows when something is wrong. "Just a lot of stuff on my mind, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Alan says shortly, although he doesn't elaborate. "You should come to the game tonight. And then at the after party at my house you can tell me all about it. Maybe that will help things start getting back to normal."

He taps me lightly on the shoulder before he says goodbye to the group and walks back onto campus, probably heading to the men's locker room.

"I don't know if I want normal anymore," I say to myself, so low that no one else can hear me.

I say my goodbyes to the rest of my friends, too; before I get in my car and leave the school, mindlessly driving back home even though there isn't anything worthwhile waiting for me there. My parents are probably still gone, not coming back from wherever they are until who knows when.

I think about stopping by that restaurant to see if Killer's working, or maybe even going to her house later to see if I could join her family for dinner, but I already know how that will turn out. She'll ask me if I figured out why she's pissed yet, just like she did two days ago when I showed up to school after our fight. And I'll have to tell her the truth, which is no.