“Bri,” he murmured against my lips.
My body froze, the name stinging me like a thousand bees across my skin. I found the strength to push him away, my hands frozen between us. What the hell was I doing?
His eyes opened wide. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head, rattling some sense into my brain. The cool metal railing sent rational thoughts back to the front of my mind. I moved away from him, stumbling down the cement steps, stunned by the rain as it soaked me in seconds.
“Bri. Wait!”
“I have to go.” I backed away from him. I turned away. His hurt expression made my chest tighten. I jogged around the building toward the motel. I touched my pocket again. The further I got from him, the clearer my head became. What the hell was I thinking? I should have gone with my first instinct and fled the diner after I’d eaten. And who the hell was Bri?
Bri
“Mom! Get your butt down here!” Bri Taylor called up to the second floor of the condo. She checked her phone for the hundredth time in five minutes and shoved it back into her bag. Abbey Taylor ran across the hall to the other side of the second floor, her robe flying behind her like a cape.
“Oh no you don’t!” Bri dropped her bag and bolted up the stairs after her mother.
The lock on the bathroom door clicked just as she grabbed the handle. Bri pounded on the door.
“Two minutes, Brianna!” Abbey called, her voice muffled by the shower.
“You have less than that!” Bri turned, sliding down the wall and sitting cross-legged by the door. It wasn’t like her mom’s snooze alarm hadn’t gone off three times.
Bri unlocked her phone to check the time then scrolled around the screen to her text messages. She pressed Jake’s name to open their recent conversation.
Come by the diner tonight. We need to talk.
Bri had received the message around seven the night before. Her mom had already been passed out in bed. The papers she’d been reading were spread across her lap in an unruly mess. By the time Bri had stacked everything neatly on the nightstand, cleaned up after dinner, and done a load of laundry, it had been eight-thirty. And with the stupid laws that went with her driver’s permit, she couldn’t go anywhere in the car past eight without an adult. She’d contemplated dragging Abbey’s unconscious body into the car but did wonder how she’d get back in the house after. It was one thing going down the dangerously steep driveway; it was a different thing entirely getting back up.
Her message remained the last part of the conversation. Sorry. Let’s talk tomorrow?
She knew he could only get on his phone at the beginning and end of his shift. All night she wondered what Jake wanted to tell her. Lately their relationship had been leaning toward something more than the friendship they’d had since middle school. “Hello?”
Bri shoved off the floor and leaned on the banister, her chin resting on her arms. Her best friend, Max, stood in the doorway, her short black hair pulled back in a tiny ponytail at the top of her head, with a thick curtain of bangs shading her already dark eyes. She arched an eyebrow at Bri.
Bri shrugged. This wasn’t the first morning battle.
“Mrs. Taylor!” Max called. “If I’m late again, Mrs. Brewster is going to kick my ass.”
The bathroom door opened. Bri looked over at Abbey who was fully dressed and in the middle of pulling her hair into a bun as she walked back to her bedroom. “Watch your language, Maxine. And Madelyn and I are on the best of terms. I will explain your tardiness, if necessary.”
Bri checked her phone again. They would be at the tipping point of being just in time for first period and being late. She groaned. At this rate, she wouldn’t get a chance to see Jake until lunch. Her fingers hovered over the phone screen. Ultimately she decided to wait until she could see him in person. He had wanted her to come to the diner last night so it was something he wanted to say to her face. A hole widened the pit of her stomach.
Bri lifted the handle of the suitcase she’d placed at the top of the stairs earlier that morning. Abbey came out of the room, her hands on her hips, scanning the area.
Bri tapped her finger on the handle of the bag. Abbey grinned and fluffed Bri’s hair before taking the bag and gliding down the stairs. “Thanks, sweetie.”
Max stuck her tongue out and Bri’s mom flicked Max’s ponytail playfully. “Let’s get a move on, ladies!”
Bri flew down the stairs and bumped Max with her arm. Max wrinkled her nose and followed Abbey out of the house. Bri closed the door behind them, checking that the lock was in place. She and Abbey had been a duo since Bri was born, months after Abbey’s boyfriend had split. They shared the household tasks and made up for each other’s downfalls—Bri mostly making up for Abbey’s—but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Abbey slid into the passenger seat. “Chop chop!”
Bri jogged to the driver’s side of the car, avoiding the rain so it didn’t make her hair go from straight and smooth to frizzy and unruly. She slid into the driver’s seat and checked her phone one last time. Even though the day had started off rough, she had a feeling today would end up okay. All she had to do was make it until lunch.
***
Bri navigated the road, the windshield wipers thumping. The rain had picked up after they got into the car. At that point she knew they were going to be late but she’d rather that than end up in a ditch and never hear what Jake had to tell her.
One of the perks of Abbey being the school librarian was prime parking in the faculty-assigned parking spots. Bri pulled into the busy lot at a snail’s pace so she wouldn’t run down any of her classmates. The car crawled behind a group of popular seniors, who didn’t care that a vehicle was behind them. As sophomores, Bri and Max weren’t at the bottom of the social ladder but certainly far from the top. They kept to themselves. Though Jake breezed up and down the ranks as he wished. Being the golden boy of both baseball and basketball teams had its advantages.
Bri pulled into one of the teacher’s spots and put the car in park. “Max, there are two umbrellas under the seat.”
Max shuffled under the seat and came up empty-handed. “Don’t see them.”
“Hmm,” Abbey murmured, her bottom lip trapped under her teeth.
Bri groaned. “Seriously?”
“Well I did use them,” Abbey said lightly. “I may have left them inside.”
The warning bell for first period shrilled outside.
Abbey reached into her bag and pulled out two plastic grocery bags. “A little rain never hurt anyone.”
Bri unbuckled her seatbelt and braced herself, peering back to Max who shot daggers at Bri’s mom. Loving daggers, of course.
Max reached over the seat and kissed Abbey on the cheek. “I’m finding a new ride.”
Abbey grinned. “Without me your life would be so uninteresting each morning.”
“At least we’d be on time!” Max pulled the bag over her head. As a straight-A student she was determined to end her high school career without so much as a blemish on her record. That included perfect