“I’m sorry, Avery,” he said. “It’s just going to make it worse.”
Avery ducked her head. “I know. I just miss her.”
“You know what, Avery?” Colette started in a much brighter and cheery voice than I expected. “I talked to Cherri today.”
Avery’s head shot up, and she looked over at Colette. “You did?”
“Uh-huh,” Colette confirmed. “I had to give her back some of the stuff that she had left at Nathan’s. It may take a little while, but trust me, everything is gonna be fine.”
A small smile slid across Avery’s face, and Alistair let out a sigh of relief. He was the only one. The rest of us were there for what happened, and we knew the interaction wasn’t as optimistic as Colette made it seem. I’d been with Colette all day other than when she went to the bathroom before lunch, and the box of stuff was in the locked classroom where she would have her next class. Unless she was some sort of wizard, I was confident that she had not returned the box to Cherri. Whether Colette was lying to make Avery feel better or whether she was that delusional about how their morning interaction went, I wasn’t sure, nor was I sure which one would be worse.
Finally, Brayden arrived at the table, dropping down into a spot across from Nathan with a huff, his tray of food skittering across the table.
“Hey, man,” Nathan greeted. “You okay?”
“No,” he spat back. “You could have fucking died for how many of my calls you returned over the break. If I hadn’t talked to Kyle, who talked to Nikita, who talked to you, I probably would think that you were dead. That’s pretty fucking cold.”
“Hey,” I started, but Nathan put his hand on mine and shook his head.
“You’re right,” he replied to Brayden. “That was totally out of line. I was worried about myself and didn’t stop to think about how it would make you feel.” He looked straight into Brayden’s eyes. “Forgive me?”
Brayden looked Nathan up and down and then rolled his eyes. “I guess.”
“If it makes you feel better, I missed having you around.”
Brayden’s eyes skipped back to Nathan’s. “Really?”
“Yeah. You’re one of my best friends. I missed all of you guys.” He reached across the table and gently tapped a fist against Brayden’s hand. “It killed me not to be able to host the Christmas party. Remember last year, when you dressed up as Santa. I fucking loved that.”
Brayden’s expression seemed to lighten at that. “Yeah. That shit was hilarious.”
“You kept pulling out that mistletoe and holding it over everyone’s head, didn’t matter who it was, trying to get a kiss.”
Brayden laughed. “It didn’t work.” Nathan forced out a laugh to match Brayden’s, and the tension in Brayden’s shoulders released a little bit. “Anyway, don’t do that again. I was worried.”
“I’m sorry. I really am. As a matter of fact,” he started as he looked down at Kyle, then back at Brayden, “what if we go out to dinner tonight, just the three of us?”
Brayden looked down at Kyle. “Yeah?”
Kyle seemed dog tired, but a warm smile slid across his jaw. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
“Yes!” Brayden pumped his fist in the air and then dug into his food, and the table returned to its quiet tension for a while.
“Uh, what was that all about?” Jaxon whispered to me.
I shrugged. “Damned if I know.”
As if perfectly timed to make everything worse, murmurs started to fill the lunchroom as Cherri walked in and over to Sicily’s table, where he used to sit with Deon. She sat down across from him, not even bothering to go get food, but when Sicily slid some of his over to her, she took it. Jaxon and I were probably the nails in the coffin as we both stared in her direction, and eventually, everyone at the table turned to look as well.
“Whoa,” Brayden said. “Is that Cherri?”
“Yeah,” Kyle quickly replied, throwing a nervous glance at Avery.
Avery seemed about as bad off as she could be already. I didn’t imagine that anything could make it worse at this point, not even her estranged best friend’s apparent culture shock.
“Wow,” Avery muttered. “She…” She sniffled in and dropped her head to the table, and Alistair put his hand on her back and rubbed.
“Sicily doesn’t seem all that surprised,” Alistair added.
“He was with her this morning,” Jaxon said. “I guess they’re bonding over Deon’s death.”
Nathan and I quickly side-eyed each other, but fortunately, no one saw the look that passed between us.
“Bonding,” Brayden said with a snicker. “Sicily is smart as hell. A woman like that, all vulnerable from losing her man. He’s the best friend going through it too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hit that within forty-eight hours. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that Cherri doesn’t have any trouble moving on quick—”
Nathan was over the table in an instant. He had Brayden by the collar and had dragged him clear out of his seat.
“Nathan,” I huffed, but he wasn’t listening.
“What the fuck?” Brayden hissed.
“Watch how you talk about her,” he growled, his nostrils flaring.
“Fuck,” Brayden said. “I’m sorry.”
One glance around proved that everyone, Cherri and Sicily included, were watching the interaction, so I grabbed Nathan’s jacket and pulled. “Everyone’s watching.”
That seemed to snap Nathan back to attention. He let go of Brayden and took a few deep breaths. “Shit. I’m sorry, man.” He smoothed Brayden’s shirt out from where his balled fists had left wrinkles. “It’s just that she had every right to tell me to fuck off.”
“Fine,” Brayden said. He slunk back down into his seat, and to my surprise, he turned, and his eyes locked with mine.
There was a moment of silent understanding that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it was because I generally didn’t understand Brayden, or maybe it was because my ears were still ringing with how angry Nathan got. He swore that he didn’t have real feelings for Cherri, but the day so far had proved the contrary. Maybe it was easy for him to say that when she wasn’t right there, but with her around again, it was harder for him to hide how he felt about her.
The rest of lunch was a silent, tense mess. Jaxon and Alistair both respectively took Colette and Avery away as soon as they stopped eating, and after a little bit of time, Nathan got up and left as well, leaving just me, Kyle, and Brayden at the table.
Kyle looked over at us and likely found us both staring down into our food. He pounded his hand on the table. “It’s complicated with Cherri. You guys know that. You’re not dumb.”
Brayden didn’t stick around after that. He lifted his tray from the table and left without another word. I looked at Kyle and nodded. “Yeah. I know.”
With that, I stood up, headed over to dump my tray, and made my way out of the lunchroom, bound for my next class.
“Look, just name your price.” I heard Nathan’s voice from down the hallway. I snuck my way along the wall until I could peek around the corner, and I saw Nathan and the vice-principal talking to each other in hushed tones. “It’s the first day back, and she’s been through a lot. Just look past it.”