This Can't Be Good

Chapter 40

It had almost been two weeks and I still wasn’t talking to Parker. Max kept trying to press the issues so I wasn’t speaking much to him either. I wasn’t really talking to anyone lately. I had stopped having lunch with everyone after I got the note on Monday.

I figured the notes would stop coming after Monday when I didn’t respond to any of Parker’s attempts to talk to me about it. I was mistaken. They kept coming, expect instead of just once a day I was up to two or three. I hadn’t read any of them. It was now Friday and the big football banquet was tomorrow. Our parents are supposed to be flying down Saturday morning and meeting us there. No one knows where any of the boys are for sure going yet.

Banquet was always a big deal. It let the team know where everyone was going firsthand instead of having to find out in articles the next week when the boys were officially signed. The banquets were always kept private because if anyone said they were thinking about signing somewhere and then didn’t it would be a huge media deal.

I always loved the banquet. It was always entertaining watching the senior boys get emotional over high school, plus it was always fun to see how everyone else acted when decisions were made. This year was going to be real emotional for our family though. This time I actually have a relationship with the seniors that are leaving. Not to mention for the first time in a couple years the team is announcing a new captain. It’s all so surreal.

The lunch bell had rang but instead of walking to the cafeteria I walked to my next class which was photography. Ms. Doll let her students eat lunch in her class if they were working on something. I had been hiding out here for the last week. I was working on editing a picture for a class assignment. It was almost done but I still had some touching up to do. I opened photoshop and lost myself inside the world of photography. I continued working for some time before realizing someone was watching over my shoulder. I spun around in my chair to see who was there. I was surprised when I saw Miranda standing there.

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked. Miranda hadn’t really taken notice to me being absent from the lunch table. At least I hadn’t thought she did.

“Can we talk?” she asked a little too quickly.

I nodded. Saving and exiting out of adobe photoshop. No one else was in class so I gestured for her to sit down beside me. She did. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this conversation. I was hoping nothing bad. I nodded for her to continue.

“It’s about Parker.”

Uh-oh. The first thing that went through my mind was that she knows. I talked myself out of that conclusion fast since we weren’t even talking. I tried my best to keep my casual composure. It was really difficult.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He never came to New York with us for my birthday. My dad was really mad at him and then they had a fight over the phone the next day. They’re not talking now.”

Lovely. I was the reason Parker didn’t go to New York which means I’m the reason why he’s not talking to his dad. Good job Josylne.

“So now Parker isn’t talking to our dad and banquet is tomorrow and he hasn’t told them anything. So my mom was yelling at me to find out what he’s thinking.”

Stupid college talk. I didn’t want to hear what Parker’s plans were. I already knew them. I didn’t say anything so Miranda kept talking.

“Anyway, I went to talk to him the other day and he wouldn’t say anything but I continued to bother him. He completely flipped and told me it was none of my business. So I talked to my mom yesterday and she told me that he got into USC. I asked him about it this morning and he totally ignored me.”