Page 7 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

“How do you think Hammerskill’s ass smells?” Ceradi murmured behind me and a few students snickered.

Whatever. It wasn’t like any of them did it.

Mrs. Hammerskill clapped her hands before picking up a stack of packets off of her desk. “Okay. With that sorted out, let’s get onto the boring class stuff. Yes, I do know it’s boring, but it’s important for you to learn it. This is a packet to let me know where you are in your history studies. This is our chance to round out what you know and prepare for your SATs. Feel free to work with others around you or independently. It’s totally up to you.”

Mrs. Hammerskill walked up the rows of desks, handing packets to each student, and I noticed as soon as Aria got hers, she made a joke about it to the guy to her left and he and the girl in front of him started to chuckle. They continued to chat and eventually decided to work together. Throughout class, Mrs. Hammerskill made a few comments to the students in general, and Aria boldly and wittily bantered back and forth with her. Everyone laughed and enjoyed talking to Aria, and I quickly found myself jealous. She was still just as confident as I remembered.

I imagined speaking out loud during class in front of everyone and my stomach gave out just thinking about it in my own mind. Yeah, I’d managed to create an ideal body, and I was the captain of the football and baseball teams, but when it came to public speaking, being charismatic, or just generally anything that required being out of my comfort zone at all, I was horrible at it. It was something she’d always had down pat. No wonder she was able to just come to a new school and start over fresh senior year. I could never do something like that.

“Tris.” I looked over to my right and my best friend Hannah was holding the packet like it was covered in toxic sludge. “Please help me with this. I’m horrible at history.”

Ceradi flicked up some of Hannah’s blonde hair. “It’s not like Tristan is so smart. You’d be better off just guessing. You’ll probably get more correct. It’s not like it’s graded.”

Hannah and I locked eyes. History was actually my best subject, which Hannah knew, but the rest of my friends thought I was as dense as they were. “Yeah,” I said, “but at least if we guess on all the same ones, we’ll know that we’re the same amount of stupid.”

Ceradi accepted that, letting out a shrill laughter. She turned her attention away from us and started working on her packet on her own, mostly using her phone. Hannah slid her desk close to mine and we started working on our packets together. Occasionally, I would hear an explosion of laughter and look over to see Aria in the middle of some pleasurable conversation. Part of me wanted to walk over and join in so bad, but I knew how it would look to walk away from my dedicated group of friends.

“Are you looking forward to your party this weekend?” Hannah asked. “The big 1-8.”

“Yeah,” I responded. “Super stoked.”

“Were you able to get your brother’s place?”

I sighed. “Kinda. He’s going to be there and his girlfriend, but at least I was able to ditch my old man. I’m sure Taylor will be much more chill.”

“I assume youdidn’ttell him you already invited over a hundred people to his house before even asking him to use his house.”

I snickered, imagining Taylor flipping his shit if he knew that. “No. I creatively chose to leave that out. He let me use it anyway, so no harm, no foul.”

Hannah shook her head as she laughed at me. “I guess. Do you have a date?”

“No. Why? You jealous?” I asked.

“Yeah totally,” Hannah said flatly.

Hannah and Ihaddated right after she joined our friend group sophomore year. She was gorgeous and seemed to accept more of my authentic self. It went okay until we started to get intimate and realized that the romantic aspect simply wasn’t there. Dates went fine because we legitimately enjoyed spending time together, but when it came to doing anything beyond that, it was just awkward. We called it quits and had been close as best friends ever since.

“Anyway. People are going to talk if you bring someone, so just being open and available is probably better anyway,” Hannah explained.

“Yeah. Probably.” Once again, my eyes drifted over to Aria. I wondered if she would go with me if I asked?

“What are you doing?” Hannah asked. “Why do you keep looking at that girl?”

“Oh,” I said. “She’s an old friend from when I was a kid.”

“So?” Hannah said. “Stop looking at her. You’re going to cause a scene.”

I furrowed my brow at her. “Now you reallydosound jealous.”

“No. I’m just worried about you,” she replied.

“Worried? About what?”

Before she could respond, the bell went off, signifying the end of class. “Okay guys,” Mrs. Hammerskill said. “That’s it for today. Continue to work on anything you haven’t finished tonight, and we’ll have a little more work time and then review tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

Everyone packed up their things and started to leave the classroom. I hung around outside the door, and it didn’t surprise me to see Aria lingering behind, caught up in conversations with the new friends she’d made. Ceradi, and some of our other friends, Josh, Milton, and Capito, blew right past me on their way to their next class, but Hannah noticed me hanging back and came to stand at my side.

“You okay?” she asked.

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