Five total miscalls from Lee last night, and a text message asking her where she was because her mom called and she was worried about her. He didn’t say HE was worried, just her mom.
‘I’ve called my mom, I’m on my way home, thanks for asking’ was her reply before she turned off her phone for the night. The text was read when she checked in the morning and he didn’t text anything else.
How did it come to this? He was her best friend before he was her boyfriend. They literally texted and talked to each other every single day. Now this was all that’s left of one whole year of getting to know a person, fell in love, gotten so attached to him, this letting go phase is cold and awkward and sad.
She went to school the next morning feeling like a new person. The day before was hard but she realized that maybe in time she can get used to it. Lee very much still occupies her mind, intensely, she missed him, she missed the way she feels when she was with him. But maybe he was right. She will have to let him go eventually, and this was what she had to do to get to a point where she can go about her days without him.
She tried to avoid the places she might bump into him at school. The less she set eyes on him, the easier for her to move on. But who was she fooling, in her mind’s eye, she can always see him around the school doing his thing, hanging out with his friends. She sighed. This will get better eventually. She thought to herself.
At break time, she realized she hadn’t seen Marlon since the first bell rang. She asked her friends who might share the same classes with him and they all said they hadn’t seen him all morning.
‘Where are you?’ she texted him.
The time said 10. 10 AM on her phone. There was no reply, the text was not even read. He was either still sleeping or he was in a class that she didn’t know about. She decided to join Jan and her other friends at the cafeteria. The friends she hadn’t talked or hang out with for some time because she was always too busy with becoming a student council, hanging out with her boyfriend and/or tutoring Marlon.
It was then she learned how much she had missed out on. Couples broken up, couples got together, who won the soccer championship, who made it to the International in Math competition, who was caught smoking in the boys bathroom. She couldn’t seem to get enough of the stories. How could she have missed all that? That’s when she realized that relationship ends, but life goes on.
‘Can you meet me at the parking lot?’
A text from Marlon came in right after school was over.
‘Be right there’ she replied.
She gathered her stuff and bolted through the door. Marlon didn’t come to school at all and she wondered why. He left around 9. 30 last night. As she was hurrying towards the parking lot, she saw Lee walking out from the school entrance. They exchanged a glance. She pursed her lips as a reflex, he acknowledge her then looked away.
She hated the feeling, but she walked on. She didn’t know that Lee was following her with his gaze and saw her approaching the white Lambo at the parking lot. He sighed, of course, who else would it be?
The passenger seat opened up and she went in. She stared at Marlon in shock. His face was bruised, his lip was bleeding, he was wearing sunglasses to cover his swollen eyes.
“Oh my God!! What happened?” She noticed he was still wearing the same clothes he left her house with last night. “You didn’t go home last night?”
He shrugged and pressed a button to close the door. He put the car in gear and drove. “I did,” he said lazily. “And then I left.”
Something must’ve happened in the house, she thought. She fastened her seat belt and not sure what to ask him. “Do you want to study?”
He laughed lightly and stopped abruptly because it hurt his face. “No, Hazel … I don’t want to study,” he said with a low voice.
She exhaled deeply, “Do you want to tell me what happened to your face? It looks pretty bad Marlon.”
“You should see the other guy,” he chuckled and winced. He put his hand on his left rib where it soared. “Can we go back to your place? I have to clean up, I don’t wanna go back to my house,” he glanced at her.
She remembered her mom was out for coffee with her friends and her dad was still at work. “Sure, let’s go to my place … so you had a fight with someone?”
He didn’t reply immediately, “I went to a club last night, and then I met this girl … she was hot.”
She grimaced, how typical, she thought.
“And then … you know, we made out, she was into me it was obvious … and then …” he sighed, “It turned out she was there with her boyfriend.”
“Oh God, you didn’t know she was with her boyfriend? She didn’t tell you?”
He cocked his head to one side, “Well … I kinda knew … but she didn’t care.”
“What is wrong with you? So you were looking for trouble?”
He was but he didn’t say anything. “Who cares, I was drunk, she was drunk, everyone was drunk … it just happened.”
“What happened after that? Did someone stopped the fight?”
“They kinda threw us out of the club after the first few punches, and then we carried it out in front of the club … I don’t remember the details … we were going at it until a police patrol car passed by and separated us … I think they took our names and addresses … Stanley Yorke … I think that’s the name …”
“Stanley Yorke?? That’s Max’s friend,” she slapped his arm, “You made out with Stanley Yorke’s girlfriend? Marlon! He was our wrestling team captain last year … the school is probably going to hear about this, you’ll get in trouble.”
“They’ve probably already called my dad … I don’t care, Hazel, can we just not talk about it?” he was getting tired. “I haven’t slept all day since yesterday, well … I fell asleep in the car for a couple of hours but that doesn’t count … I’m hungry,” he said and she could faintly hear his tummy growling.
Hazel fixed some sandwiches after she gave Marlon a towel to shower in her bathroom. Though he told her most of everything of how he got his face all messed up, he hadn’t said a word about why he left his house after he got home last night. He looked ready to sleep when he left her house, they were out all day and he didn’t look like someone who was going to continue his night to a club.
She put the sandwiches on a tray, took an ice pack from the fridge, she reached into the first aid kit compartment where her mom kept all the bandages and antiseptics. She heard the bathroom door was opened when she walked up the stairs, it would be the first time in her life that she finds a boy sitting shirtless on her bed.