“Hm, that’s odd. Lemme see if maybe she’s out sick,” Mr. Crane offered. His brow furrowed as he concentrated on his computer screen and let out a grunt of confusion. “Well, it looks like she was in class until lunch, but the rest of her school day was unexcused absences. She might’ve had sumpin come up, maybe got sick. Poor girl.” He sighed to himself, before flicking his gaze to meet mine. “I can get ya assigned to another peer tutor. Lemme see who’s still free.”
Just as the pit forming in my stomach began to twist with regret for treating her so poorly last week, the door swung open,and she walked in. Shiloh didn’t spare us a glance as she walked up to the sign-in sheet and peered down at it.
“There you are,” Mr. Crane said with a smile. “We were just beginnin’ to wonder if you weren’t coming in. Thought you might been sick.”
I reached out to her, tapping her arm to get her attention. She swung around with a fierce look in her eyes, her fist curled and aiming to hit me, but then her features softened in recognition.
“Sorry,” I smiled, dropping my hand from her arm and relaxing my body that had tensed for the anticipated punch. “Didn’t mean to…”
I trailed off, not able to finish my sentence when my brain registered the wounds on her face. My heart stuttered in my chest. Busted lip, possibly broken nose, and a cut that went through the tail-end of her eyebrow. The heavy pit in my stomach tightened as I speculated what had happened, my mouth suddenly too dry to even swallow.
Holy crap.
“Everythin’ alright?” Mr. Crane interrupted our stare down.
“Fine,” she replied, glaring at me for one more blink before turning to face him.
“Shiloh!” Mr. Crane stood up so quickly his rolling chair went flying backwards. “What in the Sam Hill happened, kid?” He rounded his desk, ushering her to sit down in the seat beside me.
“Have you been to the hospital?” he tutted at her, his gaze intently assessing her face.
“Yeah.” Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat, waving away Mr. Crane’s attempt to get her to sit down. “Got into a car accident over the weekend. But I’ll be fine. It looks worse than it is.”
My heart stuttered again in my chest, and I reached up to rub it in an attempt to stifle the feeling of unease that lingered there.
“Do you want a ride home? You shouldn’t be at school when you’re hurt,” I said.
“No, I’m good. Seriously. Let’s just get to work. I’m sorry I’m late.”
Mr. Crane and I shared a look of sympathy and disbelief before I responded. “I got us a study room,” I smiled, pointing with my thumb over my shoulder.
She nodded and followed behind me. Shiloh looked stiff as she sat opposite me, her jaw tense.
“Listen, are you sure you’re okay? You should be at home resting.”
She sent me a death glare that told me I needed to drop it, so I did, and I was beginning to think being mean was just her personality.
“Look, I just want to apologize for last week. I was a dick about your eyes and I’m sorry,” I said.
Her face held a blank stare, so I continued with my apology. “I know that it doesn’t excuse my behavior, but I’m not usually such an asshole. And IswearI wasn’t trying to be rude or insensitive when I asked about your eyes. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”
Her hazel eyes scanned my face, darting between my pleading eyes as I anxiously waited for her to say something.
“Food,” she finally said. “Get me dinner and then I’ll accept your apology.”
If she wasn’t staring like she was fantasizing about my demise, I would’ve thought she was talking about a date.
“Y-yeah, sure. Um, do you have somewhere in mind you want me to take you? I, um, I’ve got a family dinner that I can’tskip out on, but, um…maybe a drive-thru, and I can drop you home after?”
Shiloh chewed her bottom lip, and I got the sense that maybe she was a bit of a masochist because it caused her cut to start bleeding again. She didn’t even flinch. Her tongue flicked out, swiping away the blood and I had to tear my gaze away, clearing the sudden tension in my throat.
“Um, unless you’d wanna come to my house for dinner?”
I braced myself for some scathing comments about not wanting to be around my family and was stunned when she nodded.
“Sure. Let’s finish going over that quiz,” she instructed.
I shook myself from my stupor and pulled the materials out, satisfied that she had accepted my apology, or would after her meal, and was going to make sure I didn’t fail math.
