Autumn Leaves and Teenage Dreams

31. Divide

For once in my life, I am excited to return to school on Monday morning. For the entirety of the weekend, I've mostly kept to my room except during meals, and even then, no one speaks much about what happened. In a way, I feel even more repressed than before, but sometimes, my siblings give me light smiles, and I realize that some day, this will be a passing memory.

I do my best to hide the bags under my eyes and my greasy hair that could use a wash, but I still look less put-together than normal. I didn't even have the chance to wash my uniform in all the chaos, so I go to school in a sauce-stained skirt, hoping that a teacher won't notice and give me a detention because of it.

"Are you okay, Callie?" Juliet asks when I meet up with my friends in the morning.

"Yeah, you look tired, girl," Hazel states.

"Rough weekend," I murmur. What's worse is that I haven't seen Aurora today either to tell her what happened, but I suppose I can save that for our walk home.

"What happened?" Abigail asks concernedly.

I consider telling them. After all, I was going to tell them last week. All the attention is turned on me. It seems like an opportune moment. But I can't go through with it.

"Stress," I say.

"You really need to find ways to manage your stress better," Hazel tells me.

"No kidding," I grumble.

I don't find it too difficult to focus in my classes. It's a distraction from the events that occurred this weekend, and if anything, I want the day to drag so I don't need to return to my awkward household so soon.

What really puts a damper on things is that I don't have Calculus today, meaning I really have no chance to see Aurora before the end of the day unless I greet her at lunch, but even then...I know she doesn't want to draw suspicion toward us, and I'd rather not showcase my exhausted state to all her friends.

As I head to lunch, I check my phone, my heart leaping to find a text from Aurora. My heart sinks shortly after. She's simply notifying me that she has to stay at school for a meeting, so we'll be unable to walk home together. I consider shooting her a text, asking if we can talk soon, but I don't want to concern her. This is my problem after all, not hers, so I simply tell her I'll see her another time and disappointedly put my phone back in my bag.

I begin eating lunch, only half-paying attention to the conversation around me, until the topic of prom surfaces. My mind flashes to merely two weeks ago when I was cuddling with Aurora in her bed, stroking her hair, and talking about prom with her.

My friends go on their usual prom spiel, but this time, I feel myself growing frustrated. I've had it up to here with prom and dates and having to put on a performance in front of my friends. After the events of this weekend and what Aurora and I spoke about the weekend before, the last thing I want to deal with is the prom discussion again. 

"Well, Callie still needs a date," Allison interjects. "I can ask another friend of Ryan's, since you already said you won't take Colton."

"I don't need you to find me a date," I growl.

"You're going with someone?!" Hazel exclaims.

"No."

"Come on, Callie. Don't go stag. I'll find you someone cute," Allison promises.

I clench my fists. I know I can't blame them. I haven't given them any reason to think otherwise about me, but for some reason, I can't help but let all the words spill out of me.

"I don't want to take a boy to prom," I mumble.

"Just because it was awkward with Colton doesn't mean you should just not bring a date in general," Juliet suggests. "If Allison can find someone, you might really like—"