Comfortable Madness First PDF 4-13-18

Reunion
First thing in the morning, I found a note in my locker. No
one ever left notes in my locker. When I saw it, I thought maybe
Tayla had left it. I knew better, I hoped. We hadn’t said anything to
each other for weeks. Maybe, I thought, this was her way of trying
to get past things.
I opened the note and on it was written: The offer stands.
Coy. PS: You’re starting to show.
I closed my eyes. Coy was the last person I wanted to hear
from. Life was so much easier when he was nothing more than an
aggravation and a pain in the ass. This solicitousness complicated
things. Of course, he couldn’t just be nice. He offered a kindness
but backed it up with a slam.
I folded the note and tucked it into my pocket. No one
needed to know that I was talking to Coy. It would piss people off.
Miss Tris and Tad would never understand and Tayla would just
walk away. I needed her to walk closer.
Walking down the hall, I watched for people staring at my
belly. I kept one hand on it, pushing, hoping no one knew what I
carried there. My belly was still hard and flat, and no one said
anything. No one seemed to stare at me more than usual.
In bio, I stared out the window. Off and on, Gid’s face
reflected there. Off and on, the teacher’s voice cut through the
white noise in my head. I wanted to go home, but there was nothing
there for me, so I wandered through the day, watching people,
worrying about what was coming next.
At lunch, in Queertopia, Tayla came and sat with us. Tad
and Miss Tris tried not to stare, but their eyes washed over us on
and off. Tayla ignored them. She ate and she kept her face down
over her plate. I wanted to touch her. My fingertips ached with a
wild desire to feel her jaw’s soft line.
“So,” she said. “Gid?”
I nodded.