The Last Summer by Ruthie Luhnow

Author:Ruthie Luhnow
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Kindle Unlimited
Published: 2018-05-20T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Alfie

Three letters were all it took to spell out the end of Alfie's time in Niobrara.

Three letters, an F, an A, and a G, lurid orange spray paint dripping down the front of his locker, discovered the morning after the first basketball game of the season.

That morning, Alfie slipped into school just before the bell for first period, as he always did. Alfie was a late sleeper by nature and would have happily been nocturnal if anyone would let him. He'd also learned long ago that sliding into class at the last moment didn't give his classmates much opportunity for snide comments or dirty looks. While the majority of the school simply ignored Alfie, there were a handful of students—like Chris Ross and his friends—who'd made it their mission to harass Alfie whenever they were feeling bored or Alfie had a free period or Mercury was in retrograde. They never seemed to need much of an excuse.

The halls were crowded, as they always were, but something was different today—the students were all clustered towards the south end of the main hall, and there was a strange, ominous electricity in the air. Alfie narrowed his eyes suspiciously, and his stomach began to sink as he got closer and realized the epicenter of whatever was causing a stir seemed to be right around Alfie's locker.

He pushed through the crowd, irritated, but as soon as the students saw it was Alfie shoving at them, they stepped back, as though Alfie were Moses parting the Red Sea.

And that's when he saw it.

An odd kind of calm descended over Alfie then, as he surveyed the graffiti on his locker. He could feel the eyes of the entire school on him, waiting for a reaction. He simply stood there, looking. They hadn't even done a good job—the spray paint had run, leaving sloppy trails of paint everywhere, and whoever had written it had atrocious handwriting, like a kindergartener.

He was shocked, of course, but not exactly surprised. Numbed, he was able to notice the relief he felt, observing it calmly like a butterfly that had landed on his hand. Since that night all those months ago, at the party Wynn had dragged him to—at the party Alfie had followed Wynn to—Alfie realized he'd been waiting for this.

He hadn't known what this would be exactly, of course. He'd simply known that Chris Ross and his friends would escalate things until they got what they wanted.

Alfie wasn't even sure what they wanted. To make him miserable, yes. To make him leave, maybe. He wasn't even convinced about that—because if Alfie wasn't around, who would they torment?

Though Alfie did feel confident they'd find someone new once he was gone.

"Alder, my office. Now."

The principal's voice cut through Alfie's almost meditative trance. The principal was shooing all the students away, yelling for them to get to class, though it wasn't having much effect. Everyone was much more interested in seeing the latest Alfie Alder saga unfold than going to first period.

Alfie

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