When Mel gat to school the next morning, she discovered that all of the things that Avery normally stored in her locker were gone.
No note. No explanation. Just an empty hook and a whole bunch of extra space.
Mel scrambled through the contents, but nothing of Avery’s was left—not the music folder, or the chemistry book with the broken spine, or the cigarettes that Mel was always afraid someone would notice. And then Mel saw the worst of it. Sitting in the middle of the top shelf was Avery’s thumb ring.
There was a buzzing sound in her head. Mel took the ring and quickly shoved it onto her own thumb. It was too large, so she put it into her front pocket.
She skipped first period, which was only twenty minutes anyway since it was the start of the Thanksgiving holiday. She sat in the last stall of the bathroom instead, flicking the lid up and down on the little bin marked Feminine Disposal that was attached to the wall. The bin also had no bottom and no bag, so it could never be used for anything except for making noise and transmitting this slightly scary message that Mel couldn’t help but take personally.
An hour later Mel was still in the bathroom. She figured she was definitely marked absent by now and so there was no need to go to her classes. Instead she decided to venture into the halls and try to find Avery and ask her what was going on. Unfortunately, with all the dodging and weaving that she had to do to avoid being seen by any of her teachers or by the security guy who paced the halls, Mel managed to miss Avery at every turn. When she actually did spot her between seventh and eighth periods, it was in such a public place that there was nothing Mel could say or do without causing a huge scene (which would just make things worse), so she slipped out to the parking lot to stand by Avery’s car and wait.
Avery must have bypassed her own locker after eighth because she appeared just a moment after the bell rang. She didn’t look very pleased that Mel was standing by the car, preparing for a confrontation. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Hey,” Avery said, making sure not to look Mel in the eye. She started shuffling through her bag.
“You took your stuff,” Mel said.
“I just thought it would be better,” Avery replied, keeping her attention completely on the contents of her bag.
“But you left your ring.”
“I just need a few days, Mel.” Avery’s voice was low but still — cracking.
“A few days for what?”
“About?”
“Stuff. I have a lot of … stuff. I just need a few days.”
“What about this weekend?”
“I don’t know,” Avery replied, finally pulling her keys out of the clutter. “I think we should just spend time on our own. You have to go to your mom’s anyway.”
“I’m just going there for Thanksgiving dinner.”
Avery was talking like it was no big deal at all to cancel four days’ worth of plans, including Saturday night, when Mel’s dad was going to be gone and Avery was scheduled to stay over. They didn’t just skip those nights. Mel lived for those.
“It’s just one weekend, Mel.”
Mel felt her knees start to give. She carefully lowered herself and sat down right there between the cars.
“Mel, I’m late.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve got my lesson now. I’ll call you later, okay?”
Avery got into her car. It was punctuation. This discussion was over. Mel wanted to do something dramatic—leap up and grab Avery, stand behind the car and block it in, scream at the top of her lungs—all awful things that would do no good. As it was, she was already sitting on the ground in the parking lot, and people were looking at her, probably thinking that she was a crazy lesbian. But all she wanted was her best friend, the girl she loved, to put her stuff back in her locker and say she’d spend the next few days with her.
Mel watched the school buses come into the lot and Avery’s car disappear around the block. Everybody looked so happy to have the next few days off. To Mel those days were just holes—big, deep holes that she’d never be able to fill.