“Huh?” I jerked my gaze back to Hazel, who had her door propped open.
“She’ll probably be leaving soon,” she said, checking her phone.
“We should try to catch her.” I slid in behind Hazel and let the door swing shut behind me.
She breezed through the cramped space to her bedroom.
“Did your stuff expand since we were last here?” I wedged myself past the giant clock and followed her.
“Ha. Ha. You’re hilarious.” Her tone implied I was anything but.
I propped myself in the doorway, watching her sift through dresser drawers. This was my first time seeing her bedroom. It matched the rest of her space perfectly, every wall covered in pictures, shelves, or knickknacks. Her curtains looked straight out of the seventies. An old landline phone sitting on her dresser didn’t even appear to have a cord attached to it. The bed was ridiculously high, on an iron bedframe. Like,ridiculouslyhigh. It nearly came up to my hip.
“Do you have a stepstool for this thing?” I patted the handmade, multi-colored quilt on her bed.
“Nope,” she said, before turning away from the dresser shewas rummaging through and launching herself at the bed. She had to use both arms to hoist herself up but then she was on, bouncing on the plush mattress.
“If you need a running start, the bed is too high,” I said.
She laughed. “I disagree. It keeps me spry.”
“You shouldn’t have to do a track and field event every night before bed.”
“That’s part of the fun.” She twisted her finger in a loose thread. “I begged for this bedframe for my sixteenth birthday. I thought it looked Parisian.”
“Much like the rest of your décor,” I said sarcastically, nodding toward the beat-up poster of a popular nineties boy band near my left shoulder.
“Eclectic, Reid. Learn the word. Love the word.”
Smirking, I set my palms on her bed and hoisted myself up so that we were next to each other. My entire body immediately sank into the mattress.
“This is too soft.”
“Too high. Too soft. Too much personality.” Hazel laughed while mocking my voice. I pinched her side, and she let out a small squeal before bursting into laughter again.
“I’m serious,” I said. “This can’t be good for your back.”
“I so appreciate your concern for my spinal health.” She batted her eyelashes at me, and I moved my head to steal a kiss. It happened so suddenly, I didn’t even question it. But when I pulled away, she blinked a few times, the blush apparent on her cheeks.
For a second, I doubted myself. Were we not at the level of stolen kisses yet? But when I saw her bite her lip to keep from smiling any wider, I knew she was feeling just as giddy about whatever was brewing between us as I was.
“Okay, let me get what I came here for.” She hoisted herself toward the edge of the bed. It was almost comical how she had to slide off. Back at the dresser, she continued pulling clothes out of a drawer that was packed to the brim.
I slid off the bed and joined her, carefully watching her selections.
“I like that one,” I said. She’d just pulled out a vintage-looking sweatshirt that said Key Ridge Ski Resort.
“Me too,” she held it close to her. “It was Gran’s. She went there a million years ago.”
“Did you two go on many vacations?”
She stuffed the sweatshirt into a tote bag she’d taken off the back of her door, which was crammed with a variety of items hanging off hooks. “Not really. Unless you count the indoor water park in Ohio.”
“Oh, that definitely counts. I love that place.”
“We should go some time.” Her eyes twinkled as she looked up at me. I loved that look. Hazel wasn’t meant to be sad. Ever. She was meant to always havethislook about her, the one with the bright eyes and the fizzy giggles.
She pulled out another one and I squinted to read the text.
