Cross Trail Middle School Chapter 8
When James woke up, it was seven o’clock and he was tempted to roll back over. But as he sat up, he didn’t actually feel that terrible. It was warm in the apartment, but not nearly as hot as it had felt yesterday, so maybe the heat wave was breaking a few days earlier than the weather report had expected.
He walked out of his room and saw Amelia facedown on her bed through her open bedroom door, moving boxes still scattered around her. In the living room, Bradley was still asleep on the couch, James’s old fan aimed at him from the coffee table. James moved quietly into the kitchen to make coffee, but Amelia was up and joining him a second later.
“Morning,” she said, looking glum.
“Hey.”
“She just texted me again.”
She held out her phone, which showed a message from Riley. It was a lot longer than the one from last night, so James took it and squinted at the text.
RILEY
I know you guys are friends and I know that you’re trying to be caring. But you’re putting everything else in front of our relationship and I can’t deal with that. First it was Rosa, now it’s James. He’s not helpless, Matt could have gotten him home or whatever and you could have stayed. But you chose not to. That was a decision you made. We made these plans together and you really need to get away from work sometimes and take a break. I want to be your girlfriend, I want this to work. But you need to think about me too. We’re both foundation, we’re both busy. But I can manage to find time to see you, so I need you to prioritize me too. Because that was a dick move last night leaving me alone at the club. And I had a feeling you were going to do it, you always do. A month is fine, but it’s been a while and he needs to get over it and you need to get over it. What happened was horrible and yeah you had to be-
“Wait, I’m sorry, I just remembered the second part of that,” Amelia said, pulling her phone away before James could finish reading it.
James let out a breath. “Amelia,” he said, instead of responding to that. “Why do you want to be with someone who isn’t nice to you?”
“I don’t think I do.”
The coffeemaker hissed behind him as Amelia stared down at the message on her phone. “I really wanted this to work,” she said.
“I’m sorry.”
She pulled an energy drink out of her bag, which was sitting by the coffee maker, then cracked the tab and drank half of it in one long sip as James watched in fascination.
“Sometimes you make me wish I was twenty-five again,” he said.
She laughed, then looked at the time. “I should call her before work,” she said.
“Then come back in. Graham made apple cinnamon bread he’s been trying to get rid of for days. He put some in the fridge when he was picking up his movies.”
“Is that the same one he brought to work?”
“Probably.”
“Okay.”
She smiled shakily, then went out onto the sunny balcony and closed the door behind her. James watched as she held her phone to her ear, waiting for the call to connect. Then she was talking, the words blocked out by the glass.
He wanted to be here when she was done, so he didn’t go shower just yet. Instead, he moved back into the living room, where Bradley was still asleep under the homemade red blanket Graham’s sister had hated enough to send home with Graham, but James kind of loved. James walked past him and back into his bedroom to open the window and lay out his work clothes while he waited.
He came back out to the kitchen a few minutes later as Amelia opened the balcony door, letting in a rush of hot air. “It’s over,” she said dully.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. James waited for her to start crying, but she just looked numb as she went into the fridge and pulled out the quick bread Graham had made, along with some blueberries. She held them up silently and James nodded, so she brought them to the counter and started washing them.
“She told me she was sorry it didn’t work out,” Amelia said as she put some blueberries in a bowl.
“Did she say sorry about anything she did?”
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
Amelia shrugged. “Whatever,” she said. “I guess I’m single again.”
