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Her eyes flicked to Melanie, who also was looking at Rory with that same kind of sorrow.
Melanie reached for her arm, but Rory shrugged her off, backing away from the both of them. “No, you don’t. You get nothing.”
She sprinted away, not turning at Melanie’s calls to wait up. She ran down the halls and out the front entrance of the school, heading for her car.
Nothing made sense anymore. Her mother hated her. Tyler didn’t want to be with her. She wasn’t sure where she would be come September. She didn’t even have a date for prom.
She turned on the ignition and peeled out of the student lot.
* * *
Rory didn’t think about where she was going until she parked her car.
Even though she knew where Jess lived, she’d never been to her place before. Her apartment building was tucked down a side street near Hillside Park, not close enough to be walking distance to Scoops, but close enough to the beach. Rory doubted Jess ever went, though. She didn’t seem like the beach-going type.
She pulled her car into the parking lot of the complex, on the lookout for Jess’s white car. She found it parked in front of an apartment door that looked bare, which was starkly different to the others—doors with potted plants and patio furniture and cheery doormats. But not Jess’s place. Her apartment didn’t have a doormat or any decor. Almost as if this wasn’t important to her. Somewhere temporary.
Rory stepped up to the door, holding her fist up. Only then, she heard loud yelling and cursing. And crying.
“How the FUCK are we going to afford that, Charlie?” Jess screamed, her voice cracking as she said it. “We barely have the money to pay rent!”
“Jess, for shit’s sake, it’s FINE!” he yelled back. “I put it on my credit card.”
“Jesus fucking christ,” Jess roared. “Which card did you put it on?”
“Jess…”
“WHICH CARD?!”
“Jess, someone is standing outside.”
Rory froze, silence enveloping them. She heard thumping and then Jess was there, throwing the door open. Her face was splotchy and red, tears streaking her cheeks, her glasses gone. Rory watched as her eyes went wide before she squinted them into thin lines, her glare anything but welcoming. “What are you doing here?”
“I-I just—”
“Leave now.”
“Jess, is everything—”
“NOW, RORY.”
Rory nodded, shuffling backward and stumbling down the front step. “Yes, I’m-I’m sorry.”
Jess responded with a slammed door. The yelling started up again, but Rory didn’t stick around to listen, jogging over to her car and hopping in. She was breathing heavy, her chest tight with worry for her friend. Could she consider Jess her friend? Yes, she was a Scooper, she was practically family. And yet, Jess constantly pushed them away. What did she have to hide?
She reached for her phone, looking at the time. It was almost nine in the morning, which meant her second class was about to begin. The idea of going back to school for the day seemed like hell. She knew she was being reckless, but it wasn’t like she was going to college in the fall if her mother had anything to say about it. So…what did she have to lose?
She cleared her mind and plugged in an address on her phone, putting the navigation on speaker.
Her phone let her know that her next destination was forty-three minutes away.
* * *
She knew it was a terrible, terrible idea.
Rory veered off at an exit in Rhode Island, the navigation on her phone leading her closer to the beach.
Gabi was definitely getting some kind of notification about Rory skipping class. Her mother never said anything about Rory arriving late to school with Melanie. But skipping an entire day? That would get her talking again.
