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Chapter 2
Azalea’s stomachstill churned if she caught a whiff of anything that smelled remotely alcoholic. But she was upright and mostly functioning. She’d spent the weekend with Jewel, trying to cheer her up in any way possible, but she could see the devastation Jewel was going through, and her heart went out to her. Jewel had not had luck with dating.
She had been witness to many of Jewel’s breakups, but this one was probably the worst of them all. She supposed it was because they had dated far longer than any of the others, but Azalea still felt like there was something missing from the breakup that she didn’t know about. Her heart thudded hard. It had been doing that a lot lately since her drunken night with Jewel. She was definitely still experiencing the tail end of the hangover she’d given herself.
Azalea grabbed a bottle of water from her lunch box and opened it for a drink to try and calm her churning stomach. She should have called out sick that day, except there hadn’t been coverage. Azalea walked slowly toward the cafeteria since she had lunch duty. She moved tediously, but at least she made it there as the lunch line started. Students filed in and sat down. She stuck to her water and ignored the food she’d brought out of habit.
Standing by the north end of the cafeteria, she glanced over the students to make sure no one was causing a fuss. By the time the kids reached high school, they didn’t really need supervision, but they always made sure to have a couple staff members nearby in case there was an argument, or a fight broke out. The music room wasn’t that far away. She should probably check on her friend.
Azalea left the cafeteria toward the end of the lunch period. She could easily take a few extra minutes to catch Jewel before she had to go back to her classroom for fifth period biology. The door was open, so she stepped through it, checked for students, and shut it behind her.
“J, you in here?”
“Yeah.” Jewel popped her head out from the closet in the far end of the room. “I was just looking through some music for the spring concert. I think we should do a medley of The Beatles music. What do you think?”
Jewel’s cheeks had that nice rose color to them like she wasn’t still struggling with the effects from alcohol, which she probably wasn’t. Azalea had a good fifteen years on Jewel, and even though they were best friends, nights like the other night proved just how much more experience Azalea had in life than Jewel did.
“I think that’d be fun.”
“Me too.” Jewel took an entire box of music and trudged back to her desk, flopping it down.
“I wanted to check in on you, since we didn’t get to talk much yesterday.”
Jewel glanced up at her, her big brown eyes watering, her nose reddening as she tried to hold back the wave of emotions that had overcome her. Azalea had seen that look one too many times in the last few days. Jewel whimpered, and Azalea stepped in and grabbed Jewel’s hand.
“I promise it does get easier.”
Jewel nodded and brushed her hand through the hair at the back of her head. “Yeah, I know. It just sucks right now.”
“It does.” Azalea squeezed her friend’s hand and gave her a wan smile. “You still hungover?”
“No.” Jewel furrowed her brow. “Why? Are you?”
Azalea snorted. “A bit. My stomach is still roiling up a storm. The frog dissection today was quite an adventure, let me say. I kept a mask on the entire time and still struggled to keep my breakfast down.”
Jewel chuckled. “You shouldn’t have drank so much.”
Winking, Azalea kept eye contact with her best friend. “It was for a worthy cause.”
“I don’t know about that.” Jewel fiddled with her hair again, a nervous habit Azalea had come to learn through the years, although she couldn’t fathom why Jewel was suddenly anxious around her.
“It was. Trust me.” Azalea had to give her a gentle smile to try and comfort her in some way. This sudden tension was off-putting and made Azalea second-guess everything. They came to a natural pause in their conversation, and Azalea turned toward the door as a couple of students came in. “You let me know if you want to talk again, though. I’m always here for you. You know that, right?”
“I do,” Jewel whispered. “Thanks.”
The awkwardness between them increased, the tension deepening. It was hard to have any type of deep conversation with students in the room, but Azalea was pretty sure they knew each other well enough that they could get around it without giving too much away. “I’m serious, J.”
“I know you are.”
“Good.” Azalea picked up some of the music. It had been decades since she’d played any type of instrument, and while she was not an expert at reading music, she could tell which songs were there and read some of the melody. It had all the highlights. “I think this is a good choice. The kids can dress up as their favorite Beatle or as their favorite song to make it extra spicy.”
“Oh!” Jewel’s eyes lit up. “I love that idea.”
Azalea grinned. She loved it when she could get Jewel excited about something. It always made her happy. “Parents will love it, too.”
“Yes, they will.”
“When’s the spring concert again?”
