Chapter 251
The apartment was quiet when I got there, which always makes me happy. Cadence and Aaron have an office on campus a few blocks away, but sometimes Cadence likes to work from here. I’m not sure if it’s because she’s afraid she’ll drive Aaron crazy with her disorganization, or if he drives her crazy telling her not to put her feet on the desk or to quit bouncing her knee, but whoever thought it was a good idea to put them in the same room, even if it’s a big one, probably didn’t think it through. So a lot of times, when I get back from training, she’s here. Luckily, this was not one of those days.
I dropped my gym bag on the floor inside my room. (I learned a long time ago you never drop your bag by the door if you don’t want to have it flung at your head in the middle of the night by a Guardian who doesn’t sleep much and keeps a pretty tidy ship.) My stomach was growling, but I decided to call Brandon on the IAC and let him know I was home before I wandered into the kitchen. He replied that he’d be there in a few minutes, so I thought I may as well wait. Lots of times, he’ll fix me something to eat while I’m working, and what he makes is always better than what I can throw together. I guess that’s one small bonus of not having an attentive parent. At least you know how to make lunch.
I grabbed my laptop and plopped down on the sofa. My sister kept all of her fancy art in the remodel, which makes sense since Aaron bought it, and he brought in some pieces, too, so now I can study European history in the same room as an actual Monet and a Van Gogh, which is super cool, except for there’s not really anyone to tell about it. I don’t know any of the other kids in my “class” because everything is virtual, and even when one of my teachers tries to do some sort of interactive chat session, there’s not much I can learn about any of them through a textbox.
Once again, I was missing my friends. I let out a loud sigh to an empty room and stared at my laptop, wishing I could FaceTime Lucy and Emma, but they were at actual school at the moment, and even though it was lunchtime there, I doubted I’d even be able to hear them in the cafeteria. Everyone else, including Milo and Wes, think that the death of my grandma—on top of everyone else that has died recently—was the last straw, and I moved in with my sister to get some space. It made sense, considering none of them knew Elliott was alive, again, except for Lucy and Emma, and everyone at my school had known him. We’d also lost Jack and Drew, and all the students at Shenandoah High knew I was close to Jack and that Drew was friends with my sister. I didn’t really like that a lot of people probably thought this meant I’d gone a little nuts, but then, if that’s what it took to get out of there, I was willing to do anything.
And now here I was questioning that decision. Should I have waited until I graduated?
The door opened and Brandon walked in with a huge grin on his face, and I remembered all the reasons why I wanted to move to Kansas City. “Hey, there, beautiful,” he said as I stood up to embrace him. He kissed the top of my head, and I stood there a little longer than I normally would, which prompted him to ask, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I assured him, letting go and sitting back down on the couch. He sat down next to me, but I could tell from the look on his face that he didn’t quite believe me. “I’m just… missing Lucy and Em,” I said before adding, “and my mom and dad a little bit. And Milo and Wes….”
“So… I walked into a Cass pity party? Am I underdressed?” I smacked him in the leg, but his joke worked. I was laughing. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I know it’s hard.”
“Do you miss your friends at all?” I questioned. I hardly ever asked him anything about his life in Pryor because I know he didn’t want to talk about his mom, but I was under the impression he had quite a few friends back there. He never talked about any of them.
“Not really,” he said with a shrug. He had recently cut most of his curly brown hair so that it was more wavy than anything else at the moment. I think he did it because he was tired of people telling him he looked just like his dad, but I missed those curls. When he moved his head, they used to dance around, giving me an excuse to reach up and straighten them out. Now, I just folded my hands in my lap. “I miss a few of them, but mostly I’m just happy to be here.”
I nodded. I knew what he was saying. But he’d been here a little longer than I had, and it seemed like he fit in with the other guys on the team a little easier than I did. Mickey, for example, was nineteen, not even a full year older than Brandon. And Brandon seemed to get along pretty well with the really old guys, too.
Not that I didn’t. In fact, I got along with some of the guys better than I did the girls. I was used to having girlfriends, though, so this was an adjustment. Aurora was more of a mentor than a friend at this point, and Cadence was my sister before she was anything else. I liked Ashley, but she was almost twenty-two and so much more mature than I was. I knew I’d feel a lot better if I had a solid friend who was a girl, someone to talk girl stuff to, but I didn’t know how that was possible unless Cadence or Aaron decided to hang on to one of the new recruits.
