Chapter 364 - Normal Day

Chapter 364: Chapter 364 - Normal Day

Angela came back to school four days later.

She had texted Roxie and Karen the night before with a simple I’ll be there tomorrow, followed less than a minute later by another message telling them to act normal.

Roxie had agreed. Karen had agreed. But by the time Angela walked through the front entrance the next morning, Roxie already knew they were going to fail.

She and Karen had met Angela outside, and Roxie had to stop herself from checking her arms the moment she saw her. Angela was wearing jeans and one of her regular fitted shirts again, with several bracelets around her wrists. Her hair was down, there was a little makeup around her eyes, and although the swelling from all the crying had faded, Roxie could still see the tiredness in her face.

Angela caught her staring almost immediately. "Seriously?"

Roxie blinked. "What?"

"You’re checking me."

"I’m looking at you."

"You looked at my arms."

Karen cleared her throat. "For the record, I looked at them too."

Angela stared at both of them for a few seconds before sighing and starting toward the entrance. "You two are terrible at acting normal."

"We’re adjusting," Karen said.

Angela shook her head, but Roxie caught the small smile on her face before she turned away, and that alone made some of the tension in Roxie’s chest ease.

The strange part started once they entered the main hallway. Usually by this time most students were already moving toward their classrooms, leaving only a few people at the lockers or hurrying through the corridors. Today there seemed to be people everywhere, and when Roxie looked closer, most of the familiar faces belonged to the cheer team and football players.

Ava stood near the water fountain with another cheerleader. Two more girls from the team were farther down near the lockers, while Kendall stood near the intersection leading toward the science wing even though Roxie was almost certain she had no reason to be anywhere near that hallway.

Angela noticed too. She slowed and looked around. "Why is everybody here?"

Roxie glanced at Karen. Karen shrugged, so Roxie did the same because she honestly had no idea whether somebody had planned this or whether everyone had simply decided on their own to be visible today.

She had heard enough rumors over the last two days to have an idea why the hallway felt so strangely controlled. Two days ago Ava had nearly gotten into a fight after overhearing somebody talking about Angela in the corridor. Roxie hadn’t been there, but by lunch three different versions were circulating. One said Ava had shoved the girl against a locker. Another said two teachers had needed to pull them apart.

Then yesterday someone claimed Kendall had dragged a girl into the bathroom and shoved her face toward a toilet for talking shit about Angela. Roxie had asked Kendall whether it was true, and Kendall had stared at her like she had lost her mind.

"Are you crazy?"

That had been enough for Roxie to stop asking.

Whether the toilet part was true or not, the entire school had apparently received the message.

Angela kept looking around while they walked. "Seriously. Everybody is acting weird."

Karen adjusted her bag. "Maybe Briarwick suddenly developed manners."

Angela gave her a suspicious look, and Roxie bit the inside of her cheek as they passed Ava.

"Morning," Ava said, far too casually. "Guys hey."

Roxie nearly choked at how awkward the greeting sounded. Ava’s cheeks immediately turned red, but she tried acting normal and continued talking to the girl beside her as though she had simply happened to be standing there.

Roxie bet she spent at least a minute rehearsing a normal greeting in her head.

Angela slowed. "Hey. Morning."

Ava looked at them red faced before awkwardly turning back as if words have failed her.

Angela looked back at her, then noticed Kendall farther down the hall.

Angela stopped walking. "Oh my God."

Roxie tried to look innocent. "What?"

Angela turned toward her. "They’re guarding the hallway."

Karen looked around. "That sounds dramatic."

"They are literally spread out."

"That could be coincidence."

Angela pointed discreetly. "Kendall is standing outside a classroom she has never entered in her life."

Roxie looked toward Kendall, who immediately turned toward the bulletin board and pretended to be reading something.

Angela stared at her while Roxie fought a laugh. "People are acting weird because all of them are standing around waiting for somebody to say something about me, aren’t they?"

Neither Roxie nor Karen answered.

Angela looked around again, and Roxie watched color slowly rise into her cheeks. For a second she worried Angela might cry, but the expression on her face was different. Embarrassed, touched and maybe even happy.

"You guys really don’t have to try this hard," Angela murmured, mostly to herself because none of the others were close enough to hear her.

Roxie nudged her shoulder. "You can tell them later."

Angela smiled and looked around the hallway one more time. "People are seriously scared of them."

Karen nodded. "As they should be."

Angela laughed, and Roxie found herself smiling too.

Classes passed more normally than Roxie expected. Angela answered questions, complained about assignments and copied notes she had missed while she was gone. During one class she slid Roxie a badly drawn picture of their teacher, and Roxie nearly laughed loudly enough to get both of them caught.

Roxie still watched her, although she tried hard to make it less obvious. Sometimes Angela went quiet for a few minutes. Sometimes she looked at her phone and stayed on one screen longer than necessary before locking it again. Roxie wondered if she was reading old messages from Caleb, but she never asked.

Angela had come back because she wanted to start living normally again, and Roxie was slowly learning that being there for her didn’t mean reacting every time her smile disappeared. Sometimes Angela needed to be allowed to feel something without everybody immediately treating it like another emergency.

Lunch tested that almost immediately.

The moment they entered the cafeteria, Roxie saw Caleb at the basketball table. Angela saw him too and stopped beside her.

Caleb hadn’t noticed them yet. He was talking to one of his teammates, although the dark circles under his eyes made Roxie wonder if he had been sleeping any better than Angela had.

Roxie looked at her. The smile Angela had been wearing disappeared.

"We can eat somewhere else."

Angela stayed still.

"Angela?"

Karen moved closer on her other side while Angela stared at Caleb for several seconds before slowly shaking her head. "No."

"We can go outside."

"I know."

"You don’t have to stay here."

Angela finally looked at Roxie. There was sadness in her eyes, but her voice stayed steady. "I need to get used to it."

Roxie’s chest tightened.

Angela glanced toward Caleb again. "He goes here. I go here. I can’t leave every room just because he’s in it."

Karen studied her. "You sure?"

Angela swallowed before nodding. "Yeah."

Then she turned and walked toward their usual table.

Roxie followed, although she couldn’t stop herself from glancing back. Caleb was looking at Angela now, and whatever conversation had been happening at the basketball table seemed forgotten. His teammate was still talking, but Caleb’s attention had shifted completely, his eyes following Angela across the cafeteria.

Roxie felt anger stir inside her.

He looked miserable.

She hated that because hating him would have been so much easier if he looked perfectly fine.

She turned forward and noticed Karen had looked back too. Karen lifted one hand and flipped Caleb off before facing forward and continuing to walk as though absolutely nothing had happened.

Roxie stared at her.

A laugh escaped before she could stop it.

Angela looked back. "What?"

"Nothing."

Karen pulled out a chair. "Absolutely nothing."

Roxie sat across from them, still fighting a smile while Angela looked between the two of them and narrowed her eyes. "What did you do?"

"Nothing," Karen repeated.

Angela studied her for several seconds before realization crossed her face. "You flipped him off."

Karen opened her water bottle.

Angela smacked her arm. "Karen!"

"He deserved it."

"I’m trying to be mature."

"You can be mature." Karen took a drink. "I’ll handle the rest."

Angela stared at her before laughing, and Roxie laughed with her.

For the next several minutes lunch felt almost like it used to. Angela complained about the assignments she had missed, Karen suggested increasingly ridiculous excuses for avoiding them, and Roxie ate while listening to both of them argue.

Karen eventually leaned back and pressed a hand against her stomach. "I feel bloated as hell."

Angela glanced at her tray. "You barely ate."

"I know. My head is killing me too."

Roxie looked at her more closely. "You had a headache yesterday."

"I’ve barely been sleeping."

That made sense to Roxie immediately because she hadn’t been sleeping properly either. Part of it was Angela. More than once over the past few nights Roxie had woken up and checked her phone because she was afraid she might have missed a call. Sometimes she opened their group chat just to see when Angela had last been active before putting the phone back down.

The other reason was sitting at the football table.

Roxie glanced toward Zac, who was sitting with Mason and Dylan while Mason talked animatedly about something. Zac looked perfectly rested, which almost offended her considering he had been part of the reason she was exhausted.

Ever since Nationals, Zac had been insatiable. At first Roxie had found it funny and flattering. After everything they had gone through, there was something comforting about how constantly he wanted her. She liked the way one look from her could change his expression, and she liked how he seemed incapable of walking past her inside the bungalow without finding some excuse to touch her.

Lately, though, she had started wondering about the frequency. He wanted sex constantly, sometimes in the morning if they had time, again after school whenever they were alone, then at night and sometimes once more before they finally slept.

Roxie enjoyed it, which made complaining difficult. It was flattering and definitely fun, but it was also becoming exhausting enough that a tiny part of her had started wondering whether this was normal.

Were all couples like this once they had privacy?

Maybe this was simply what happened when two eighteen year olds were stupidly attracted to each other and had nobody around to stop them.

Or maybe something was going on with Zac.

She watched him for another moment, and as if he felt her staring, Zac looked across the cafeteria. Their eyes met and his expression immediately changed.

That smile.

Roxie narrowed her eyes at him.

Zac’s smile widened.

Yeah.

That exact problem.

Her phone buzzed beside her tray.

Zac: Angela okay?

The question softened her immediately.

Roxie looked at Angela, who was stealing fries from Karen’s tray while Karen complained about bloating. Although sadness still lingered around her eyes, she had laughed more today than she had in days.

Roxie glanced toward Zac and gave him a small nod before typing.

Roxie: Yeah. She’s doing okay.

Zac read it almost immediately. Mason leaned toward him and said something, Zac answered, then looked down at his phone again.

Roxie’s screen buzzed.

Zac: Mason wants all of us at his party tonight.

Roxie stared at the message.

A party.

Her immediate reaction was reluctance. She had started hating parties because they meant too many people, too much noise, too much alcohol and too many chances for somebody to do something stupid enough to end up online before morning.

Then she looked at Angela.

Maybe normal also meant doing stupid senior things again. Maybe they needed one night where nobody talked about Bianca, leaked pictures, police, Caleb or therapy.

"Mason’s having a party tonight."

Karen immediately looked interested. "At his house?"

"Yeah."

Karen nodded. "I’m going."

Roxie laughed. "I didn’t even ask you yet."

"You were going to."

Then Roxie looked at Angela.

Angela had gone quiet, the fry in her hand lowering slowly toward the tray.

Roxie immediately softened. "We can skip it."

Angela looked at her.

"You don’t have to decide right now."

Angela’s eyes drifted across the cafeteria, and Roxie followed them toward Caleb. Angela watched him for a few seconds before looking back at Roxie and Karen.

There was hesitation in her expression and enough fear that Roxie almost took the invitation back herself, but underneath it was something Roxie had already seen once today when Angela refused to leave the cafeteria.

She wanted to try.

Angela breathed in slowly. "Okay."

Roxie studied her.

Angela nodded again, more firmly this time. "Let’s go."

Karen smiled.

Roxie picked up her phone and looked toward Zac, who was already watching her.

Roxie: We’re in.

Zac checked the message and said something to Mason, who immediately threw both hands into the air in victory.

Roxie rolled her eyes.

Beside her, Angela laughed.

Roxie turned toward that sound and felt something in her chest loosen again. A party wasn’t going to fix anything. Angela might get there tonight and decide she hated every second of it. She might see Caleb and want to leave. She might laugh for hours and still cry when she got home.

But today she had walked back into school, seen Caleb and stayed, eaten lunch with them, laughed at Karen flipping him off and agreed to go out tonight.

For Roxie, that was enough.