August 25th. The first day of school.
Oh, joy.
As if my life isn't complicated enough that we just had to add school to it.
The first day of school dragged on forever. When lunch finally came around, I was entirely relieved.
On my way to the cafeteria, though, I accidentally bumped into someone.
"Sorry," I said. I looked at the person I'd bumped into.
"Kasey?" I asked. "Kasey… Gilles?"
"Paige?" he asked. "Hey, good to see you."
I smiled, my first genuine smile in months. "Hey, Kasey. Haven't seen you in a while."
He nodded. "Hey, want to eat lunch with me?"
"Sure," I agreed. Maybe things were getting better…
We talked the entire time. We caught up on each other's going on's. You see, we'd been friends since the sixth grade, and hadn't seen each other for a while thanks to his dad's job transfer.
"Madeline told me you've been really out of it lately," he said.
I groaned. "Not you, too," I complained.
Remind me to personally Punjab Madeline later, okay?
Punjab… merde.
Here come the tears.
Moving on to the chapter…
"Well, my… cousin… he died recently," I lied, hoping he wouldn't confront my mom about it. "In a car crash."
"I'm so sorry," he said quietly. "What was his name?"
Crap. "Uh… Erik," I said.
I said his name.
I said his name.
Tears immediately sprang up in my eyes.
"I have to go," I said. "See you later."
With that, I rushed out of the cafeteria as fast as possible, looking frantically for a place to be alone and cry.