Page 8 of Sicken of the Calm
offended
betrayed
Me
It’s Ezra
I cover my face with my phone,feeling my chest tighten. I wait for the buzz against my forehead, but itdoesn’t come. I light up my phone, but the message definitely sent.
Me
Hello?
Iva
Ezra from school?
Me
Yeah
There’s another wait, even longerthan the last one. Eventually,
Iva
ok
Me
…That’s it?
Iva
yep
I stare incredulously at thescreen before sighing. I put the phone down on the flat of my stomach, pressingmy head back against the pillows and running my hands through my hair.
I’m fucked.
**********
It has to happen eventually.
The only warning I get is thelook of unadulterated glee on Iva’s face before she’s hollering across thegrass,
“Ezra!”
I turn around just in time to seethe surprise and then grin on Ezra’s face. He waves wildly with one arm butpauses when Iva beckons him over. Slowed down by the friction of hesitation, heveers off the path between campus buildings and onto the grass we are lying on.He stands a little awkwardly when he reaches us, hand clenched around thestraps of his backpack. His hair looks even wilder than usual in the softbreeze, moving with a life of its own.
“Sit!” Iva orders, grabbing atEzra and pulling him down between us the moment he’s in reach. Ezra grunts ashe collapses on the grass.
“Moore, Ezra. Ezra, Moore,” Ivaintroduces, flapping a hand between where Moore is sitting on her other sideand Ezra.
“Yo,” Moore says before turningback to his book.
“Hey,” Ezra says, waving ahesitant hand.
“Don’t worry, he’s like that witheveryone,” Iva says dismissively, turning her back on Moore so that Ezra isfully exposed to her shark grin. Ezra turns his head to look at me, twitching asmile in my direction. I nod back. The moment he turns to Iva, I lean sidewaysto glare at her. She just grins back.
