Page 78 of Finding Him
Instead of the fourth year common room, today I went to the fifth year one during small break—since Chloe and I had a partnered project in Media Studies and she’d texted me asking if I wanted to come work on it since she’s usually really busy after school, between some fancy dance school in Dublin and babysitting and visiting her Mum in London.
The fifth year lounge mirrors the fourth year one (just a slight variation in art), and Chloe and I are seated at one of those tables with the stools when I’m startled by a voice from behind me.
“I think this is yours.”
My head snaps over my shoulder, eyes finding Niall standing behind me in his school blazer. It was Monday again—a new week, and his suspension lifted. He was holding out his palm, which held a silver necklace, with a small soccer ball pendant dangling from the end.
My hand flew up to my collarbone where the necklace always rested, only finding empty skin.
“It looks like it snapped, see,” He turns it over in his hand, showing me the broken clasp. “Was in the footwell of my car. Fell off this morning without you noticing, I reckon.”
I reach out, taking the necklace from him carefully, fingers brushing his palm. “Thanks. I didn’t even realize I was missing it.”
I don’t know how. In six years, I’ve only ever taken the thing off for games.
He shrugs, his hands disappearing into the pockets of his trousers. He glances at Chloe briefly—who’s watching us with wide, silent eyes—then back to me. “I’ve got metalwork after this. I could try fixing the link for ya, if you’re wanting. Save you the trouble of finding a jeweller.”
“Sure,” I manage to say, trying my best to sound like a normal human being and not a helium filled balloon. “I’d... yeah, that’d be wonderful, thanks, Ni.”
“Grand,” he holds out his hand, waiting for me to give the necklace back. I do. “I should have it for ya after school.”
The second he’s turning away and heading back to where he and the boys’ have been sitting on the navy couch on the far end of the room, Chloe leans closer, whispering, “Oh my god.”
“What?” I manage a dismissive eye-roll.
“I thought that was just the local gossip mill churning out nonsense rumors like always,” she whispers, glancing over at the boys’ and then back to me.
“What does that mean?” my brows furrow. Gossip Mill? Rumors? Were people talking about me? About us?
He did pick you up and spin you around during your first ever game, Molly,the voice inside my head reasons.
He’s liked you since the moment he laid eyes on you, Mol, I’m sure of it.
“You know. You and Blue?”
“Oh, hush,” I dismiss quickly, though I feel my cheeks heat up. “There is no me and Blue. He was beingpolite, for your information.”
“Oh, sure, I bet,” she nods, clearly not believing me at all. She just raises her eyebrows and pretends to go back to work.
Did I even believe me?
I didn’t, I finally decided by the time the bell rang.
??` ?? ?´?
“HAND‘EM OVER, you fat, ugly thief!”
The first thing I see when I exit the locker room after practice was Maxwell Marshall tackling his older brother into the grass beside the parking lot. Niall and JJ are both watching them with amusement, perched on the hood of Niall’s car.
They’re rolling around in the muck, shouting at each other. I can’t tell if they’re angry with one another or what, because Finn kept bursting out laughing (well, wheezing, which I know is because of his asthma).
“Absolute children, the pair of ya,” JJ calls out to them as I neared the car, shaking his head. He’s holding a porcelain travel mug in his hand, the other holding himself upright in a seated position on the hood of the car. “I’m embarrassed to be seen with you lot, honest to God.”
“Says the lad who still sleeps with a stuffed dinosaur!” Finn wheezes back, picking himself up from the grass.
“Mr. Scales is a very loyal triceratops and I won’t have you slandering his good name, thank you very much.”
Niall snorts into his own cup—which looks like an exact replica of JJ’s—shaking his head in amusement. He nods at me, and I smile in return.
