Page 9 of The Pact

MILA

Turns out, partying and lack of sleep over seven days catches up to you, and even a small nap on the plane won't save you from that huge crash you knew was coming but hoped wouldn’t. Dad said I was talking in circles when he found me lying on my freshly made bed and wanted to let me rest. So, he went to dinner without me and let me sleep it off.

I slept all night and all day. He let me know he had an emergency coaches’ meeting at five, and he wasn't sure when he would return. He told me he was sorry and to not wait up for him, promising we would do something together tomorrow before school on Monday. I shooed him away, told him his job is important and I still had some stuff I needed to unpack.

But now it’s after nine and I’m wired…too awake and nothing to do. I tried Netflix. There’s only so much I haven't watched, and I’m not interested in restarting anything.

I pull out an old book I found in the closet, but it isn’t holding my interest. It isn’t the book—it’s me. More than anything, I want the last four years to have never existed. I want to go next door and hang out with Jace and play his Xbox with him. Like we used to.

I want to ride my bike down to the lake and use the rope swing, teasing Hunter that he’s chicken for not jumping in. I want to pick daisies with Roman, not that he would ever tell anyone. That had been our thing after his mom died. She’d loved daisies, and we would pick them and place them on her headstone in the cemetery.

I miss my old friends, my old life here. I want it back, and I have no idea where to start.

I hear the thumping of a bass outside. Peering out my bedroom window, I spot a few people I recognize from elementary school. There’s a party next door. We never used to have parties like that. And now Jace is throwing one, knowing I'm here and intentionally not inviting me.

It’s like Jace wrote me completely off. All the memories of us, how we used to be, are flooding back now I have returned. And I’ve been feeling more emotions in the last twenty-four hours than I had in the last four years.

Daddy is driving Jace, Grady, and me to school today. It’s the same as every other school day, but today, Hunter, our friend from last year, is waiting for us. I’m really excited to see him again after summer.

“I want to walk you both in,” Daddy tells us again.

Grady had already jumped out the car. He was a second grader now and tall like me. He said I was smart enough to be a second grader, and I got butterflies when he said that. Daddy calls me smart all the time, but he has to say nice things, he is my daddy. It was different when Grady said it, it felt…real.

“Daddy, no, stay in the car.” I huff and roll my eyes at him. Then I give him my best smile, begging him with my eyes to not come in. I want to do this by myself. “I’m a big girl now.”

“Okay…I will be back later, you two first graders. Have fun.” He winks at us as I jump up and wrap my arms around his neck and kiss his nose.

“Love you, Daddy.”

Daddy was the best. We’d told him we were big kids now and didn't need him to walk us into school. We know what we have to do. We’re first graders now.

Jace and I laugh as we run onto the school grounds. As I turn to see his smiling face, I’m bumped hard by a big kid and almost fall over.

“Watch where you're going, dweeb,” a tall, mean girl snarls at me.

Jace grabs my hand and pulls me to him, putting me behind his back and facing off with the tall girl. “You pushed my friend. Apologize to her,” he demands.

Tall, mean girl and her friends laugh at him. “The little baby wants me to apologize. Go change his diaper, dweeb. He’s just a little baby.” She starts to make crying baby sounds.

I’m angry—how dare she. No one laughs at my Jace and gets away with it.

He’s small for a first grader, but I am a whole head taller than Jace and closer in height to this girl than he is. I love that he wants to protect me, but I’ll protect him too.

“Don't laugh at him. You’re rude. You pushed me and called me a dweeb. I’m not a dweeb, you are. And your hair looks bad.” I add that last part in hopes of hurting her feelings back.

She shoves me, and I stumble back.

I hear Hunter calling out to me, and I turn around to see his worried expression as he runs up to us. The tall, mean girl chooses that moment to shove into me from the back. My hands automatically come out in front to catch my fall, but they slide down in the dirt, and my whole body feels like it’s surfing the ground, until I come to a stop.

The pain in my hands causes a tear to form in my eye, but I won’t cry. I’m not a crier. I twist to see her friends have taken a step back and aren’t laughing anymore. They look concerned. But the tall, mean girl is pointing at me and laughing, not caring that my pretty dress is all dirty and torn.

I roll over and look at my knees. They’re bleeding like my hands and there is dirt and stones in the wounds. My throat gets tight, but I won’t cry. Not yet.

Jace is by my side and Hunter is calling out for a teacher to come help while he stands between me and the mean girl. Protecting me from her.

Tall, mean girl shoves Hunter next, and something snaps inside me, my knees and hands forgotten. I crouch low, just as Daddy showed me in the backyard. He loves football so much, and we watch it together all the time. I tell him when I grow up, I'm going to “tackle boys.” He always chuckles but teaches me every weekend in our yard how to play football.

Hunter must see the look in my eyes because he moves away as my feet press hard into the dirt. I keep my body low as I charge at her. Her expression remains the same, except the widening of her eyes right before I wrap my arms around her legs and take her down. Hard.

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