That Thursday

Cadence texts
to let me know
some boy,
Trey,
is taking her
out
to lunch
and asks
if that's okay
with me.
I respond,
insisting that I'll
probably die
without her,
but I guess I'll
make do with
the rest of
our friends.

She sends:
"Haha,
I'm going
anyway.
Buckets of love!"

I send her
hearts and
laughing emojis,
but really I was
looking forward
to ranting
about my stressful day
and listening
to her
latest funny
adventure.
I'd even take
comforting her
if she needed it
over sitting here,
pretending I don't feel
out of place
without her.
No,
out of place
isn't quite
right.
More like I'm missing
half of my soul.
I leave
our friends
early
and head to my
home base;
the Attendance Office.
Monique holds up
a finger
for me to wait
because she's on
the phone,
so I retrieve
the ice pack
from the
mini fridge
in their
closet,
cupping it to my
left shoulder,
which pulls
my other shoulder
tight
and upsets
the tight muscles
in my neck,
and chat with
Shelley.
I compliment her
outfit
and she
replies with
the store
she got it from.
We trade opinions
on the football
team,
and since she's
a StudCo advisor,
we discuss
possible
upcoming events.

Monique's
phone call
ends,
and as soon as
she enters
the information
into the computer,
she asks about
my shoulder
and notes that
my mask is off.
I took it off
to eat
and promise
to put it back on
before I leave
their office.
I explain that
my tics have been
out of wack
because of
the ending term,
so I'm sore,
but promise
I'll be fine
as soon as
Finals are over.

As we talk,
I try to
subtly move
the ice pack
to my knee
and stand against
the counter
between us
to hold it against
my leg.
My knee
hurts worse,
but I don't
want to talk about
how I've been getting
new tics
in new places.
Like the one in my
back,
that's especially recent
and makes it
the hardest
to walk
or sit
in a chair
and turns
trying to sleep
into an
ab workout,
which is
the most hated
kind of
workout.