Page 86 of Clichés & Curses

Plus, even if he did miss the class, he hadn’t said anything about cancelling our practice session that week, which seemed like a solid enough reason to text him first.

I took out my phone and opened our text chain, trying to think of what to say and the best way to word it.

Clara:

Hey! You weren’t in class today and I was wondering if everything is okay?

And if we’re still practicing ASL today?

I didn’t have much else to do that day, other than my classes, and practicing ASL with Colton, so I just watched another episode ofSchitt’s Creekon my phone while I waited for his reply.

But as the episode came to an end, his reply never came.

I opened our text chain just to make sure I sent the message, and I had.

Our practice session usually lasted for about an hour, and technically, we still had about thirty minutes left. But from the looks of it, I didn’t think he was coming. Maybe he had a reasonable explanation, but as it stood right then, he wasn’t there, and he had neither informed me about it.

In the end, I picked up my bag and made my way over to the bus stop, feeling disappointed at how things had turned out.

Colton’s reply came as I was getting ready for bed.

I let his message remain unopened unintentionally, as I was finishing up my skincare routine, only seeing the notification once I retrieved my phone. But I continued ignoring it consciously, wanting to serve him a little payback for his late reply.

I held out for as long as I could, but my itch of curiosity got the better of me—leading me to finally open his message.

Colton:

I AM SO SORRY.

One of my classes got cancelled, so I went home and decided to take a nap just now.

And I overslept.

The next thing I know, I had to go to practice.

After weeks of getting to know each other and spending time together, Colton had shown me that he was worthy of my trust. Though I couldn’t help but question him at that very moment.

Colton had never given me a reason to not trust his words, but if he were telling the truth, then why was he only informing at that moment? It seemed like something he could have told me earlier than 10 p.m. Baseball practice had been over hours before, and I was pretty he had the time to hold his phone since then.

I believed him for the most part, but there was a part within me that thought it was just an excuse. The reason why he had taken so long to reply was that he needed time to think of a plausible reason to not want to see me.

I snorted at my train of thought. I was definitely reading way too much into this.

Clara:

Hey.

Thanks for letting me know.

And don’t worry too much about our practice session this week. I know you have a game on Saturday, so I think we’ll be fine skipping another week.

I’m gonna head to bed soon. Goodnight!

The three dots appeared not long after I sent my last message, then disappeared again.

The motion kept repeating for a minute or so, before Colton finally decided on a reply.

Colton:

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