𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕. ♡ 𝒋𝒐𝒉𝒏𝒏𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒅𝒆.

xxiii

january, new year, 1966
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  after a short-lived christmas break, everything in the town of tulsa resumed. classes continued, small family-run shops opened their doors, and everything became busy once again.

  the first day back to school, trish was absolutely drained. she should have seen it coming, but in the days after christmas leading up to new year's eve, dozens of orders came in. the baking began on christmas morning, with a family or two on her street looking forward to being extra prepared when it came to catering their new year's parties just a few days later. more had only followed. towers of cream puffs, layered cakes, delectable puddings all sucked up a great deal of trish's baking supplies. other students might've had to get used to the new "1966" they would need to write on their school papers, but it would be the smoothest transition in history for the girl who had to carefully pipe the year onto cakes upon cakes the week prior.

  yet, she gladly delivered each and every package with care and joy, even in the mornings' bitter cold air. nothing could replace the feeling that came with hearing the delighted gasps or the grateful smiles she received once she arrived at a house to grant them their sugary order. it was intoxicating, almost like a drug—but a good one! it kept her busy in her house alone, as well as made her happy by doing what she loved most above many things and even people in her life. for once she also had a bit of pocket change!

  however, precious time she could spend creating new recipes or scouting out the cheapest deals for ingredients at her local stores was now replaced with dreadful schoolwork. school was usually a drag to students her age but especially taxing for students her color. with this in mind, the moment she saw the american flag in front of the school, her shoulders sagged low and her eyes were glued to the ground. she was not looking forward to dealing with those sorts of things at the time. she really did not have the energy for it.

  throughout the entire morning she felt detached. she realized as soon as second period that jahanna had skipped school that day and felt it'd be weird if she turned to ponyboy instead. johnny had crossed her mind, per usual at this point, but she realized she hadn't seen him since the christmas get-together at the curtis household. she hadn't heard anything about him from the others either. but there was no art period the first day back, and she didn't have the courage to try and seek the boy out in the school hallways either.

  before she knew it, trish was closing her locker as the final bell rang above her. sighing, she carefully slung her bag over her shoulder. she felt the strap stretch out almost into the individual threads that it was made of. she was aware the old thing was falling apart, and quickly at that.

  she started down the hallway, eyes low as she tried to get home as quickly as possible. once in a while she'd glance around to make sure she was going the right way. looking around one of these times she saw a familiar face approaching. it had been so long since she saw it in person, though it was always popping up in her memory.

  "hey johnny!" trish greeted. her hand waved almost too excitedly and large and relieved smile graced her previously bored expression. the sudden surge of replenished energy she got from seeing the boy was to blame.

  johnny was almost right in front of her when she called out, clearly close enough to have heard her, yet his pace didn't slow down. not one bit. he walked right past her. a little gust of wind even hit trish's face as she was still in mid-wave and her eyes followed him, desperately. she noticed his collar was up, something she knew was an indication he wasn't feeling great. she cursed the amount of details she noticed from hanging out with him so much before christmas.

  'what's going on?' trish wondered, along with many more questions after the fact. 'did something happen? does the gang know? is this why they haven't talked about him? do they only avoid talking about him when i'm around?... is whatever happened my fault?' she started feeling guilty for something she didn't even know she did.

this chain of questions was only broken after she felt something gliding down her side and hearing a loud thud! frantically she looked down to see her old backpack broken at the seems with a few books sticking out from under the heap of cloth. looking back up, she saw the denim-clad back gone and lost somewhere in the crowd. the eyes of the crowd—on the other hand—were giving her a greeting of their own back, though not greatly appreciated by the girl.

trish didn't waste another moment crouching down to scramble together her belongings despite how she felt as if her entire being was being boiled alive. the voices she had been tuning out the whole day were now amplified to her ears in whispers and giggles. they taunted her.

as all of this unraveled she felt like a soufflé slowly deflating into a sad and melty soup, and could think of nothing else but going home. she clutched the bundle of fabric and books close to her chest and returned to her original goal: getting to the safety of her home.