at me.” She sounds surprised when she says that, like she's mulling over the very idea. I just lean forward and kiss her cheek, moving around her to say hi to April.
“I may very well die if I don't get this kid out of me,” she groans, leaning back against Luke's car, her brunette hair unbraided and dancing in the breeze. “Fucking crotch goblin.”
“Have you heard from Thad?” Luke asks as April stands up straight and takes her proffered arm. The three of us head toward the front steps together, the Knight Crew following behind us.
Erina Cheney frowns when she sees me, but she doesn't say anything. She's clearly unstable, and it isn't my job to ‘fix’ her, but I also don't have to add to her problems. Pearl's, either. I wave when I see her, smiling as she pauses and then, hesitantly, waves back.
Eventually, I'll talk to Calix about her baby, but it's a complicated issue and not entirely my business. But I'll do what I can. That's all any of us can ever do, but if we all try, then it's enough. It's more than enough.
“Thad is flying in next week,” April says with a private little smile. Luke and I both recognize that look, exchanging grins of our own. “He's going to stay here until the baby comes, no matter what his parents say.”
“Fuck his parents,” Luke declares as we pause near her locker. I glance back to see Calix, Barron, Raz, and Sonja standing near the front entrance. They're acting casual, like this is any other day, but every now again, a pair of eyes flicks toward us. Watching. Waiting. This is a new normal for us; it's going to take some adjustment. “We're moving to New Orleans together at the end of the year and starting our own family.”
“I'd like that,” April says, rubbing her belly and then sighing as she looks up at us. “Just … if you guys are bringing them”—she gestures in the Knight Crew's direction with a tilt of her head—“then we're going to need a big house. Huge.”
“We can't predict the future,” Luke says, blushing, but the way her eyes seek Sonja … It's fate, it seems, that my best friend and I would fall for another pair of besties. Pretty sure she didn't figure me falling for three assholes though.
Three jerks, all to myself.
“No, we can't,” I agree, thinking on my own experiences. “And every day, we make a dozen decisions that affect everyone around us. Today, I'm going to assume we're all moving to New Orleans to live happily ever after. That's good enough for me, that I'm happy right now, here, today.”
“Whoa, when did you get so profound?” Luke asks, but I just laugh.
“I'll explain it all later, I promise,” I say, fingering my butterfly necklace and closing my eyes for a brief moment. “Tomorrow, actually.”
Tomorrow.
What a novel fucking idea.
I actually have a tomorrow coming, and it's the best thing that's ever happened to me.
“Okay then, weirdo,” Luke snorts, ruffling up my hair as I open my eyes. “Whatever you say.”
Footsteps sound behind us, and I turn to see the Knight Crew waiting.
“Did you like my drawings?” Barron whispers, sliding the sketchbook from my hands. “I dream of you every night, and then I sketch what I see.”
“I love it,” I tell him truthfully as Raz approaches, hands tucked into the pockets of his slacks. He has idle hands, that boy.
“Love what?” he asks, blue eyes narrowing in on me.
“You,” I respond, looking right at him and then turning my attention to Calix as he moves over to us. “And you.” My gaze moves to Barron. “And you.”
“I don't know how to process that,” Calix tells me, but I notice he has to pause and swallow a few times before he can keep talking. “But this year, you can do what you want. We owe you that, at least.”
“After this year … come to New Orleans with us,” I say, gesturing back at my friends. “Don't think too hard about it. Just say yes. If you change your minds later, that's okay, but for now, just say yes.”
“I'm down for New Orleans,” Raz says, hands still tucked in his pockets. “Party central.”
“Vibrant art scene,” Barron adds, giving me a secret smile.
“And you,” Calix says, nodding and then taking off down the hallway.
I can't decide if he's saying and you as another bullet point on the list of why New Orleans would be an interesting place to live.
Or