Seeing Shane Gray ✓

eleven | unexpected

*.*.*.*.*.*

September 27

Marla nudges me with her elbow and I look up from my phone to see her nodding towards the cafeteria entrance. I follow her gaze and see Riley entering alone this time. She looks over and our eyes meet.

I don't blink or avert my gaze, but she does, blinking and looking away as if we're strangers she doesn't want to interact with. It doesn't come as a surprise anymore. When we'd come to school yesterday, we'd expected Riley to ask us why Marla and I hadn't come to school on Wednesday. She didn't ask us anything or even have lunch with us, and when Racheal told us that she's started sitting with another girl at a table closer to Carlos', both Marla and I knew the matter was out of our hands.

"How can she not see it?" Marla asks.

Riley walks toward the opposite end of the cafeteria and sits down with a girl who looks as shady as Slim Shady can be.

"He's tearing her away from her friends but he won't even have her at the same table as himself."

"He's isolating her so that she's an easy target," Racheal agrees.

Not saying anything, I turn to look at the empty table of the football players. They're not here today, probably busy in the preparations for tonight's match. They had lost last Friday because Carlos messed up. Some people -- or most of them -- believe that Shane's injury has caused the team's downfall. He's not as bulky as many of the other guys, but his agility works in his strength. He's fast and coordinated, always there to save the team.

"What do we do?" Racheal asks.

Sighing, I look down at my game.

"Not much we can do," Marla says. "Riley can handle herself."

"But --"

"We tried, okay?" Marla snaps. "Taylor went to see her shithole of a dad to make sure Riley stays safe."

"We can talk to a teacher," I suggest.

"And what will that do? Honestly, Tay, just let her go to hell. She's basically pretending we're not even her friends so why even bother?"

"Because we are her friends whether she admits it or not," I argue, looking up and meeting Marla's brown eyes. "She's being dumb. That doesn't mean we sit back and wait for her to either get raped or become a druggie. That's not what friends do."

Marla purses her lips, looking like she wants to disagree with me but can't.

"I have an idea," I say, sitting up and looking around the cafe.

I don't see the face I'm searching for and I have no clue where I might be able to find him. Regardless, though, if anyone knows Carlos, it's Shane.

"Where are you going?" Racheal asks me when I stand up.

"I'll see you guys after the game," I say, pulling my bag over my shoulder and looking around. "Don't save a seat for me."

My plan is simple. I need to get to someone I know might be able to watch out for Riley. If Carlos is messing with Riley and using her, his friends are bound to know something about it. Even if the others don't, Shane just has to. He's always with Carlos.

He isn't today, and after making sure he isn't anywhere near the football grounds or in the bleachers, I make my way towards the library where I had seen him a few weeks ago. The library is deserted and when I make it out of it, I see all the students filing out of school for the game. Loud cheering accompanies, the sound fading away when I head opposite the crowd, scanning the faces but mostly the legs. As creepy as it might be, I'm sure Shane's cast will be easier to spot than his face.