I slide my gaze to her.
“I know you wouldn’t suffer Coach Rodier’s wrath without a very good reason.”
A mixture of anger and embarrassment rushes through me and my face heats.
“What?” Kinsley asks, sitting forward. She lowers her voice. “Did you finally go out with that guy from the dating app. Sam or Saul or…”
“Seth,” I correct her, then shake my head. “No.”
Her head moves in a circle as if to say,Then what possible reason do you have for being late again?
“I spent the night in jail,” I mutter quietly, but the shame of speaking it out loud is deafening.
“I’m sorry. I must have heard you wrong because it sounded like you said you spent the night in jail.”
I can’t bear to repeat it, so I look up at her, jaw set, so I don’t do something really embarrassing like cry in the gym. Coach Rodier would probably have me banned for life. I can just hear him saying in his French accent,There’s no crying in gymnastics!
Kinsley’s mouth opens and closes several times before she ekes out another reply. “How doesMiss I Won’t Even Pick UpSpare Change Off the Street Because It Doesn’t Belong to Meget arrested?”
Oh god. That’s another word I hoped to never have associated with myself. I wasn’t technicallyarrestedsince I went to the police station willingly, hoping to clear up the situation. It still doesn’t feel real although the icky feeling of sitting in that building all night certainly does. I’m going to need several more showers before I’ve washed off all the ick.
“Let me rephrase, I spent the night at the jail. I wasn’t behind bars or anything that tragic.”
Her inquisitive expression doesn’t waver until I continue.
“You know the house I found to rent?”
“Yeah.” She nods along, still leaning forward in rapt interest.
“Well, I went by last night to bring over some of my stuff and check it out. The leasing agent said he’d leave the key under the mat for me, only there wasn’t one.” God, just thinking about it has me irritated all over again. It has been hell trying to find lodging since I moved to Moonshot. At first it was tourist season, so nothing was available. Kinsley and her girlfriend let me crash with them while I looked for a place. But as we’ve moved into fall and things are opening up, I have discovered a new problem. I can’t afford anything. Or I couldn’t. Until this short-term lease came up.
“I tried to call and text the guy and he just kept saying ‘It’s under the mat. I left it there myself.’” Which essentially meant,Look harder, idiot. I did. I looked everywhere. I glance away from her as I say, “So I checked the windows…”
Kinsley’s face morphs slowly, a smile inching higher and higher, and then eyes twinkling until she finally bursts into laughter.
“It was unlocked so it wasn’t like I broke in or anything,” I defend myself, the same way I had last night to the police officer who showed up at the house, but it only makes her laugh harder.
“I’m sorry. Oh my gosh.” She struggles to catch her breath. She stops laughing but she’s still smiling so wide that it feels inevitable that the rest of the story will send her off again. “And then what happened?”
“A neighbor must have seen me and called the police. I tried to explain everything, but the leasing guy started ghosting me. Since I couldn’t get a hold of him to prove my story, I ended up sitting in the police station all night.”
“You poor thing.” Her smile falls.
“We got it sorted out. Finally. Apparently, my leasing agent has Do Not Disturb on his phone after ten o’clock at night so he only got my last hundred messages this morning.”
“I fucking hate DND mode. Why do people need boundaries?”
A small chuckle slips from my lips and I feel the tiniest bit better.
“Are you okay? It’s been a hell of a week. Your Jeep, the drama with Wren’s roommate, now this.”
“Yeah. I’ll be fine.” I am determined to push all that from my mind today. The past month has been one distraction after another. I moved to Moonshot to prove myself, and it feels like the universe is doing everything in its power to remind me that no matter what I do, I can’t make up for the past.
“Avoid it all and deal later?” she asks, picking up on my intent.
“Yes, please.”
She stands and offers me her hands, then pulls me to my feet. “Let’s do this thing, Walsh.”
