Chapter Twenty Four
Lincoln
I’m in the cafeteria, sitting at our normal lunch table with Bos, Jax, and Dal all in their normal seats. Filling in the empty spaces are friends of ours, who happen to be guys from the football team, Cameron Chesney, Casey Andrews, Matteo Rivera, and Andre Haskell.
But, even with all of our friends surrounding us, Aspen’s absence is more than obvious, and not just to me judging by the heaping plate that is still sitting in front of Bos, not having even bothered to touch his food.
“Any update?” Casey asks, glancing up from his plate to Bos and then to the rest of us.
“Nothing,” Bos says with a sigh. “There’s been absolutely no change. The doctors say it’s just a matter of time before she wakes up, but at this point, it’s up to her.”
“It’s been what, a few weeks now?” He asks, but before anyone gets to respond, he continues, “I would have thought she’d have woken up by now.”
“Yeah,” Bos mutters while the rest of us nod our heads in agreement.
“How are you holding up?” Matteo asks. Bos just shrugs, not really wanting to get into it and honestly, I can’t blame him. We all could see how close he and Aspen had gotten since they had started seeing one another, how much they’d come to mean to each other. I can't even begin to imagine what he’s been going through.
“Hey, Linc,” Casey says, pulling my attention to him, only to find him looking at his phone with a confused look on his face. “Isn’t that your girl?” He asks, turning the screen so that it’s facing me.
I stare at the screen, taking in the pictures of Raleigh standing with a guy that I’m more than familiar with-the quarterback from Rhydel, Brady Stevens-and he has his arm wrapped around my girl's shoulders, holding her in a way that seems way more intimate than it should be considering that she’s mine.
“What the fuck?” I growl as anger replaces the confusion and I grab the phone away from him. There’s picture after picture of them together. Raleigh and Brady walking together toward what looks like a parking lot. Raleigh and Brady sitting together at a restaurant, him looking at her as if she’s the center of his world. Brady feeding Raleigh.
“Why is she with him if y’all are still together?” One of the guys asks, which is the wrong thing to say at the moment as my grip on the phone gets tighter as I stare at the images on the screen, fury along with confusion rising within me at what I’m seeing.
“Hey, bro,” Jax says as he reaches over and pries Casey’s phone from my grip. “Calm down. We both know that things aren’t always as they appear.”
“Yeah,” I say with a humorless laugh. “And sometimes they are *exactly* what they appear to be,” I growl shoving my plate away as I stand up from the table and stomp out of the lunchroom, needing to get some air and space before I do or say something that I may regret.
I consider calling her and confronting her about the pictures, but I decide against it, knowing that I need to get my head on straight before I ask her about them.
My entire body is shaking with anger when I bust through the doors leading towards the courtyard, coming to a stop near one of the picnic tables, I lean over it, bracing my hands on the top as I try to calm down.
I know my brothers have followed me, feeling their presence before I even turn to see them. They don’t come any closer, giving me the space that they know I need, but are also here for me if I decide that I need them too.
“Fuck!” I shout, standing up straight and fisting my hair, and turning in a circle, as I try to think everything through.
*It can’t be what it looks like.*
*Raleigh isn’t a tease and there’s no way she would have opened up to me about her past if she wasn’t serious about me, us.*
*Did I do this?* I can’t help but wonder.
*Did I push her away?*
*Did I push her right into the arms of someone else?*
*It’s only been a few days,* I remind myself. *It can’t be what it looks like.*
*It can’t be.*
The bell rings, signaling the end of lunch. My brothers all walk up to me, patting me on the back or throwing their arms around my shoulders, all saying different variations of, “*Everything will be okay.*”
But as we make our way towards French class, I can’t help but wonder if everything will be okay, or if I’ve managed to fuck everything up by trying to slow things down and put a bit of space between Raleigh and me.
“Bonjour,” *hello* Mrs. Atkinson says as I walk into class.
I nod my head without saying anything as my brothers reply, “Bonjour,” *hello* from behind me as they follow me to the back row of desks, planting themselves in the desks on either side of mine.
The classroom fills up with students quickly and soon the second bell is ringing, signaling the start of class.
“Aujourd’hui, en classe, nous allons faire un test sur tout ce que nous avons appris au cours des dernières semaines.” *Today class, we're going to have a test on everything we've been learning over the last few weeks.* Letting my head fall back, exasperated, I close my eyes and groan in displeasure, while the rest of the class grumbles their irritation with the announcement.
Ignoring our irritation, Mrs. Atkinson passes out our tests and tells us we have until the end of class to finish and turn it in. As I stare at the words on the paper, I can’t seem to concentrate on what I’m supposed to be doing.
Instead, I fill in answers, hardly even taking the time to read the questions as my mind keeps wandering back to those pictures of Raleigh and Brady, and I can’t help but wonder about the context surrounding them.
*Was it just an innocent lunch with a group of friends?*
*Is she into him?*
*She wasn’t exactly pushing his arm off of her or trying to get away from him from what I can tell.*
*What exactly is Raleigh’s relationship with Brady?*
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