A Long Awaited Reunion
Luz’s POV
Luz had spent a lot of her life being anxious about Mondays. They meant an end to the two days of freedom that is the weekend and the beginning of another week of torment often with a burst of pent up aggression that her bullies had been storing since Friday. This Monday however, Luz was anxious for an entirely different reason.
She and Amity stood beside each other across the street from the school. They’d made the effort to arrive early and the late-winter/early-spring sun was just finishing its ascent beyond the horizon. Luz felt a hand reach out to touch one of her own and twitched, only relaxing after realizing it was Amity. Slowly she unclenched the death grip she had on her bike’s handlebars and intertwined her fingers with Amity’s. She was still wound like a music box though.
“What if they hate me?” Luz whispered, not taking her eye off of the school. Specifically the large windows leading to the library where theoretically Salix and Caesar should already be waiting. “For cutting them off like that?”
“They don’t hate you.” Amity’s thumb stroked the back of her hand. “They were happy to hear you were okay after the fight, and really happy when I mentioned you might want to talk to them when you get back.”
Luz swallowed the nervous lump in her throat. “Yeah but… I blocked them, ignored them for months… they were my only friends for- for years and- and-“
“Hey.” Amity, one hand still clutching Luz’s, used the other to turn Luz towards her. “Luz, you were going through a lot. I… put you through a lot.” She glanced away shamefully but only for a moment before returning eye contact. “They were never mad at you for how you reacted, I was the one who told them who you were and I asked them not to mention anything to you. I was scared and stupid and thought that it might have had a better outcome if it looked like we were both finding out at the same time.”
Luz snorted, a sad smile pulling at her face. “The funny thing is, it actually might have.”
Amity grimaced, “But lying was the wrong way to go about it. I wish I’d just been brave enough to tell you right away. We could have avoided a lot of crap.”
Before Luz knew what she was doing, she found herself leaning down and pressing her lips to Amity’s forehead then wrapped her arms around the smaller girl in a hug. “I know we’re not quite through everything we’re going to need to deal with, but I’m glad that at least we can do it together now.”
When she pulled back, Luz noticed that Amity’s face looked more red than it had a moment before. Instinctively, she took her scarf off and threw it over Amity’s. “We should probably get inside, it looks like you’re getting pretty cold.”
“Haha! Yeah, we should probably do that!” For some reason Amity’s voice sounded an octave higher than usual but Luz didn’t spend much time dwelling on it as Amity dragged her by her hand to the bike rack then through the doors.
It took them a few minutes to make their way through the crowd of early arrivals to get to the library. Luz felt her anxiety spiking, despite Amity’s reassurances she couldn’t help but feel like this might be a mistake. Step after step they made their way to the closed library doors. They could hear voices speaking softly from within. Luz wanted to itch around her cast but knew it was only her nerves. Instead, her good hand squeezed tighter around Amity’s before giving the shorter girl a nod. Amity returned the gesture with a small smile before turning the handle and pushing the door open.
The voices inside the library immediately hushed as Amity went through. Luz followed behind her, almost as if she were trying to hide behind Amity’s much shorter frame, which she definitely wasn’t. Her eyes were downcast at first but she glanced up at the sudden flurry of movement from a nearby study table. The two individuals had clearly stood up abruptly and were staring at Luz and Amity, but mostly Luz, with a clear look of anticipation.
Of course she knew who they were, the shorter dark skinned boy was from her History class, Caesar. He’d let her borrow a pencil one time after Boscha had broken all of hers and flushed them down the toilet in late fall, then he’d tried to pass her a few notes in class after Winter break. Then there was the girl, just a little taller than the boy, with dark hair and thick glasses. She sat in front of Luz in pre-calc and would cast her worried glances when Boscha picked on her. Luz thought back to the hours she’d spent talking to her, Salix, her oldest and closest friend, who had been the only thing between Luz and all-consuming loneliness for the longest time.
Luz didn’t really think about what she did next. Gently her fingers released from around Amity’s and she was striding towards the table. Salix and Caesar both stood a little straighter at her approach, Caesar opened his mouth to say something but the words failed to come as Luz wrapped her arms around both of them. The two stood frozen for a moment before Salix reached up to hug her back with Caesar following just a second behind. Luz felt Salix’s glasses go crooked against her shoulder as the smaller girl squeezed her with a surprising amount of strength.
“I really missed you guys,” Luz mumbled, her voice came out hoarse but she wasn’t quite crying.
Salix squeezed impossibly tighter. “We missed you too.”