Page 25 of Homecoming

“Where are we in the day? What class is everyone in?” I ask; I honestly can’t make my brain think of anyone or anything but Ever; she is literally consuming my thoughts.

“Erm,” Luc says and then looks at his phone, “lunch.”

“So, the hallways should be pretty empty then if we’re lucky,” I reply.

“Yeah,” Trick replies, and opens his door, “let’s go.”

We all get out of the truck quickly, and my clumsy curse very nearly takes over, but I refuse to end up on the floor and then have Ever see me for the first time in years, covered in dirt. That wouldn’t make a good first impression at all.

“Nice save,” Cash smirks.

“Why thank you,” I retort with a fuck you smile.

As we walk across the lot to the front of the school, my excitement builds, and my heart starts pounding in my chest.

Fucking hell.

“We can’t just suddenly surround her. We might freak her out,” Trick suddenly says.

“In other words, I need to calm the fuck down?” I ask with a grin.

“Yeah, go slow,” Trick replies with a smile.

I shoot him finger guns and grin, “Got it.”

“Since when have you ever done finger guns?” Rafe signs, looking confused.

I frown down at my hands in confusion, “Since now apparently.”

The laughter from my statement seems to break the tension slightly, which is what I had hoped, although the finger guns sort of surprised me, too.

“Wow, that bike is stunning,” Luc says, bringing me out of my thoughts about wayward finger guns.

“Yeah, someone has clearly spent some time on that,” I agree, as I appreciate the bike for a moment. “Wasn’t Vinnie talking about getting a new bike?”

“Yeah, I think I remember him saying something about it,” Trick replies. “I didn’t think it was going to look as good as this though.”

We admire the bike for a moment longer, only for a moment though and then we are all heading through the doors and making our way through the halls to where the lockers are.

As soon as we turn the corner, we all stop, and my eyes immediately find her. I swear my heart stops and then starts beating double time.

“She is stunning,” Luc whispers.

“She’s fucking beautiful,” Riot adds.

“That’s an understatement,” I mutter.

I can’t take my eyes off of her. She has her back to us, but there is absolutely no mistaking that it’s her. We know absolutely everyone in the school. We have to for their safety and ours. She has definitely never attended here before, and it’s not like we could get her confused with a new student because we rarely, if ever, get new students.

Plus, I would know Ever anywhere. She may be older and have gotten curves in all the right fucking places, but even though I can’t see her face, I can still tell it’s her. Her raven black hair is up in a braid, and I remember helping her do that exact style when we were kids. She has always had really long hair, and it used to hurt her arms to braid it, so we learned how to do it.

I tilt my head slightly as I study her, there is something different about her though, and I know she is bound to be different. She is a lot older now and we already know that she has been through some stuff. This is more, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but she has this confidence about her, an edge.

It makes her even more intriguing than I already knew she was. I take my eyes off her for a moment as I look at the other guys, seeing if they are as dumbstruck as I am. Which in hindsight was pretty stupid of me because they are all staring at her with varying looks of awe, and hope. I don’t think I have seen them look like that in years, probably not since she left and we realized that she wasn’t coming back.

This feels like a turning point, I don’t know what it’s turning us toward but I really fucking hope that it has Ever is in it. I know for a fact that none of us are going to let her out of our sight again. We have only just laid eyes on her again and it feels like I’m stepping into the sun again after years of living in the dark. I don’t know how to explain it.

Rafe

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