I searched her face, waiting for her to explain, but she didn’t. Instead, she mouthed the words silently, carefully, like she was afraid even saying them out loud might make things worse.It’s Austin.And just like that, the night closed in around us.
“Hang up the phone,” I said immediately, staring at the phone in her hand as if my eyes alone could force her to do it. Cherry’s eyebrows were creased completely as she listened to whatever hewas saying. She didn’t react to my words. She just kept listening. “Cherry…” I warned.
She dismissed me with a wave of her hand. “We’re fine,” she muttered quickly into the phone, glancing at me like she was following instructions. “She’s fine. I don’t know where her phone is.”
I shook my head in annoyance. My phone was exactly where I wanted it to be, powered off and buried in the glove compartment. If Austin had thought critically for even a second, he might have realized that I wasn’t answering because I didn’t want to. “Uh,” Cherry stuttered, scanning the empty darkness around us like she was searching for something. “I’m not sure.”
Whatever he said next clearly wasn’t what she expected. Her posture shifted. Her mouth tightened. “Look, I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “Blair said she wanted to do this, so that’s what we did.”
“Hang up,” I said again, my voice sharper now. Cherry rolled her eyes at me. I rolled mine right back. I thought about lunging for the phone, ripping it from her hand, but I knew better than to try. Cherry would’ve fought me. Hard.
“She can’t drive right now,” Cherry added awkwardly into the phone, flicking her eyes to the empty beer cans scattered beside us. “No,” she said quickly. “I don’t have a license.” I almost laughed at the sound of her voice. She knew this was stupid. She’d known the entire time. And she did it anyway. For me.
“I don’t know, damn, what’s with the third degree?” Cherry snapped, irritation finally seeping into her tone. She’d always hated being interrogated. Hated being controlled.
“Hang up the phone, Cherry, fuck,” I said again, even though I knew it was pointless.
“Blair, just shut up,” she snapped, standing abruptly. Then, quieter, into the phone, “She’s not going to like that.”
“If I’m not going to like it,” I sighed, “don’t do it.”
“Yeah, alright,” she said, completely ignoring me. “I’ll send it to Levi’s phone. Bye.”
She hung up. She still didn’t look at me. Her thumbs moved fast over the screen, her jaw tight. I watched her carefully, trying to decode what she’d just agreed to without my consent.
“What are you doing?” I asked finally.
She exhaled. “I’m sending our location to Levi.”
“What?” My voice cut sharp enough that her head snapped up. She looked at me with something new in her eyes. Not anger. Not frustration. Concern.
“They’re coming to get us,” she said carefully, watching me like she expected me to bolt.
“Don’t fucking do that, Cherry,” I said, the desperation breaking through despite my effort to keep it buried. “Don’t.”
“It’s too late,” Cherry frowned. “Listen, I wouldn’t have, but Austin said your parents are freaking out.”
“That’s a lie,” I said immediately. Wasn’t it? Hadn’t my mom just told me that this was exactly what I should be doing? Living. That was the word she used, right?
“I don’t know, Blair,” Cherry sighed. “That’s just what he said. What was your plan anyway? We were going to sleep outside in the middle of nowhere?” For the first time, her frustration surfaced plainly, and I wanted to be angry at her for it. I couldn’t.
“Whatever,” I dismissed, because the truth was worse. I didn’t have a plan. Wasn’t that the point?
My teeth clenched as the realization settled in. I was going to see Austin, and I didn’t want to. He had promised me something, hadn’t he? He said he would leave me in peace. It had only been two days, and he couldn’t even keep that. I reached for the last can of beer, hearing Cherry’s disappointedhumas I cracked it open. I didn’t care. I lifted it to my mouth anyway.
“Come on,” she said, abandoning the lecture she clearly wanted to give. “We have to go back to the car.”
“I’m drinking,” I snapped.
“Yeah, Blair. I can see that,” she said, her eyes scanning me the way mine used to scan her. Back when she was the drunk one. Back when I just wanted her to listen. Her gaze softened, and maybe she remembered too.
She held her hand out. It took me only a second before I took it. She pulled me closer as we started back the way we’d come. If we hadn’t walked in a straight line, I might have been afraid we’d get lost. With every step, my stomach tightened, coiling further and further as I tried to anticipate seeing Austin again. I couldn’t picture it. I hadn’t imagined this moment. I hadn’t planned for it. For my entire life, we had lived close enough to cross paths a thousand times and never had. And I had assumed, stupidly, that meant we never would.
“Just…” Cherry started, clearly hearing my unspoken thoughts. They must have been loud for her to hear. “Just don’t react, okay? I know you’re hurt. He’s hurt too.”
“I didn’t do anything to him,” I reminded her as we inched closer to the road. I could see my lonely car in the distance. It looked abandoned, like a scene pulled straight from a dystopian movie, left behind in a world that felt far emptier than it should have been.
“What did he do to you, Blair?” Cherry asked gently. “I don’t think he did anything to you either.” I wanted to tell her she was wrong.
