Saving Laurel

53. Lunch In The Music Room

Laurel Gilroy

"So you're telling me that you're not going to say anything to Sawyer?" My voice is hushed as I converse with Brett under my breath. "Nothing?"

Brett just shakes his head, leaning back in a chair in the music room. Wes is playing, amazing really because he's still tic-ing as he does. It's actually really impressive that he can play and not disrupt his rhythm. You'd never know he was tic-ing if you were just listening to him play.

"Why not?"

Brett's green eyes roll before meeting mine. He tugs his glasses off his face and pinches the bridge of his nose as he lets out a heavy sigh.

"Wes doesn't want to." He says.

I stare at Brett. His olive skin and dark curls, his mossy green eyes striking when they're not hidden behind the black frames of his glasses.

"Look what he does though." I throw my hand out widely toward Wes, still wearing his jean jacket.

It's really a whole list of things that have me agitated. It's Savannah who's still beside Wes, it's the fact that I'm still guarding his backpack, it's Sawyer and his complete disregard for Wes and his well-being. It's Cora and cheerleading and Molly's insistent pleas to get me to come home. Its hiding who I really am. It's knowing Mason exists.

But right now I'm channeling all of it toward Brett, accusing him of being the problem. Even though I know he's not.

"You're his best friend." I scold Brett. "You need to stand up for him."

Brett gives me a level stare, face solemn and worn out. And then without so much as a word he stands, the chair scraping against the tile floor. I fall back into the chair with a huff, glaring at Brett's retreating back.

I don't understand. I don't understand how Brett can sit back and not do anything.

Brett shoves the door to the music room open, the sound of the piano following him out into the hallway. And I watch Savannah follow him with her eyes, silently telling her to go after him. Solely so that she'll leave Wes alone. I think she's just about to but then I see James move from where him and Ellie were devouring their lunch and my curiosity is sparked.

He waves his sister off and lumbers through the door after Brett. I shift my attention to Ellie, she's next in line in the chain of commands or so it seems. So I abandon my chair and take up place where James was. She's eating cold mashed potatoes with green beans mixed in and I cringe.

"Wes and Brett won't change their mind." She tells me before my butt has a chance to hit the seat.

I'm not sure if she could hear Brett and I, it's doubtful, so I decide to play innocent.

"About what?" I ask, taking one of James' cucumber slices and eating it.

Her eyes roll as she crams a spoonful of her cold potatoes and green beans in her mouth.

"Listen, it's not like we haven't tried to stand up to Sawyer. In fact I know James and him went at freshman year before.." she hesitates slightly before continuing on. "What I'm saying is Sawyer isn't going to change and Wes isn't going to stand up to him."

My eyes narrow as I think over her words, trying to read between the lines. Ellie avoids me, focusing on her lunch instead.

"Why won't Wes stand up to him?" As I say his name he must have tic-ed bad because the piano let's put an angry discordant noise.

Ellie and I both look over at him, just in time to see his shoulders sag before he straightens his spin, yells "fuck off" and starts playing again.

When I turn back to Ellie, she's stabbing at her food again, a clump of mashed potatoes on her finger that grips the container it's in.

"I think they might have been friends at one point." She says. "They played baseball together growing up."

"Wes plays baseball?" I look over my shoulder at him again.

Watching as his shirt moves over the plains of his shoulders as he makes the piano sing. His body moves in time with the music and I wish I could see his face. I wish I was sitting where Savannah is, watching his knowledgeable fingers glide over the keys with grace, the peace that falls over his face as the tension leaves his body and he submerses himself in the act of playing the piano. The way when he's really lost in the world it creates for him, how his eyes close and his lips part slightly and everything about him relaxes.

"He played baseball." Ellie corrects.

"Why'd he stop?" I can't tear my eyes away from him.

I hear a snap of a lid, Ellie rummaging through her lunch box probably in search of something else to eat.

"I don't know, ask him." And when I turn back around she's dipping a pickle into a glob of peanut butter.

My face scrunches in disgust as I ask "what are you doing?"

Ellie lets out a laugh, grabbing another pickle spear as she waves it around while she answers. "Don't knock it till you try sweetheart".

"I don't know if we can be friends anymore." I tease.

I watch her swipe the pickle through the peanut butter before she takes a dramatic bite, crossing her eyes as she lets out a groan like it's the best thing she's ever tasted.

"So good." She moans.

Shaking my head, I eat another cucumber slice. "You're disgusting."

The doors push open and in walks James, Brett following in his wake. James takes a seat on the edge of the piano beside his sister. And Brett and I have a stare off as he crosses his room and plants himself back down on a lone chair.

And while all of this is happening Ellie quietly says, "all I know is before there was all of us, there was the twins, Wes and Brett and before that there was Wes, Brett but before it was just Wes and Brett, it was Wes, Brett and Sawyer."

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Don't mind me. I'm just chugging along so slowly, I might as well be going backwards.

But on a side note. I think I might be getting another tattoo. Another bff tattoo with the hubs and his friend that was living with us who I love and is definitely now my bff. He said I get to pick it because he doesn't care what he gets tattoo and we out ruled the hubs 🤣🥳.