Meet Me After Class

Chapter 48: In a Monochrome Haze

A heavy numbness had settled over me in the days following Adam's heartfelt confession. I wandered the colorful halls of school feeling like a ghost, invisible and detached.

My best friend in the world was avoiding me with the skill of a stealth ninja, disappearing quicker than I could pivot to catch him.

My days blurred together in a monochrome haze—no more bright laughter at silly inside jokes or passionate debates about almost anything silly. A gray raincloud loomed over me.

I missed Adam like a severed limb.

I sat with Penny and Melissa at lunch, picking at my food while they chatted and laughed easily around me.

"Oh my gosh, Wendy, remember that time freshman year when Adam got in trouble for drawing Batman symbols all over his math quiz? Ms. O'Brien was mad pissed." Penny snorted.

I glanced up and forced a small smile that quickly faded. Just another vivid memory that used to brighten my days but now only rubbed salt in my wound.

Melissa gave me a searching look. "Hey, are you doing okay? You've seemed kinda spacey the past couple weeks."

"Huh? Oh yeah, just tired, I guess." I shrugged, pushing my food around. "I'm doing a lot of advance reading for college classes next year."

Melissa nodded but still looked concerned. "I gotcha. Also, random question - have you noticed Adam hasn't really been hanging out with us ever? What's that about?"

I froze up momentarily.

"Oh, Adam is just playing the supportive friend card. I've mentioned how Jay's kind of obsessed with me, haven't I? Well, Jay's heartbroken at the moment. You see, I broke his heart. So, he's not hanging out with us, and Adam, being his only friend, is there for him. You know, emotional support and all," Penny breezily explained.

Thank goodness for quick-thinking Penny. She had a knack for spinning tales.

Melissa rolled her eyes. "Ugh, Jay needs to get over himself. But that makes sense. Adam's a really good guy for entertaining Jay's drama."

I stirred my yogurt, avoiding eye contact. If only they knew Adam was nursing his own broken heart, thanks to clueless me. "Yep, he's a great friend, alright," I murmured.

I knew I should stop thinking about Adam, and that night he told me he's in love with me and that he's drowning, and I can't save him because of Mr. Scott.

So I threw myself into cramming for finals, desperate for any distraction from the hole in my life left by Adam's absence. In the brief glimpses I caught of him shuffling between classes, the shadows under his eyes mirrored my own—evidence that I wasn't the only one losing sleep over this mess. But he always slipped away before I could approach, leaving only a ghostly impression of his faded Suptic Studios t-shirt drifting down the crowded hallway.

That weekend, I went to Brown's for my usual shift and also hoped maybe losing myself in the fantasy stacks could ease my melancholy. But the sight of Audrey behind the counter instead of her older brother sent an unexpected pang through my chest.

Of course, it was the weekend shift Adam usually worked. He must have swapped with his sister to avoid running into me. I took a deep breath and managed a small smile at his unwitting replacement.

"Hey Audrey, no Adam today?" I asked casually, perusing a display of the latest newly released books. I had not told anyone about what happened between me and Adam, and I'm sure he had not told anyone either. So I had to act as if things were still normal between us.