“Ew.” I groan, and he shrugs.
“Hey, my mom is too unpredictable, and you know it.”
“Please, for the love of my sanity, change the subject.”
He smiles at me. And then he whispers, “We know a secret about Lexi that no one else knows.”
“We do.”And you kissed me.Though, I don’t dare say that out loud.
“Now, we should go to sleep,” Ace says, snuggling me closer to him. His eyes meet mine again, searching, but then they stop searching altogether and go from open to shut.
An unexpected disappointment racks me, and I swallow hard against it to trap the urge to say something—to tread into dangerous territory with the boy I’ve known my entire life—deep down by my stomach. A burn sizzles as the acid there works to destroy the uninvited hope.
“Night, Lia.” He moves his hand from mine to the side of my head, where he strokes my hair mindlessly.
“Night, Ace.” I force my lids closed too, letting my body settle into his warmth as he caresses the strands.
As confusing as the kiss was, I still find comfort. Ease. Companionship. Peace.
And it doesn’t take long before I fall asleep in his arms, everything else forgotten.
Tuesday, July 8th
Ace
The hallway of the fifth floor of the Holloway Apartments just off Dickson University’s main campus is busy today, the two doors farthest from the elevator on the campus end of the building propped open with doorstops as Julia and I carry up load after load from the cars as we move in.
I’ve been waiting for this day with little to no patience since leaving the lake on Sunday and dreaming of Julia’s and my brief but perfect kiss since it happened late Saturday night. I know my tongue didn’t work any miracles on its own, but I do feel like it started a mental tangent in Julia’s brain not previously there—a possibility. A suggestion. A tease of what something more than friendship between us could be.
“Ow, T-bag, watch where you’re putting your clown feet!” my mom shrieks, sidestepping my dad and dropping her end of the nightstand she was carrying with him.
“You don’t complain about the size of my feet when we’re in bed, sweet cheeks, so I don’t know why you’re acting like they’re the next act in the freak show now.”
“Because you clobbered my toe. It’s smashed. I just got a pedicure yesterday!”
“Well, honey, maybe focus on carrying a little more than you’re focused on your pedicure, and I won’t—”
“Guys, please,” I cut them off before they really get ona fucking roll. “Can we not?”
“Don’t you dare complain about your mother complaining,” my dad launches in, setting down the nightstand and gearing up to be even more ridiculous. “She’s lifting shit for your ungrateful ass, and she just got a pedicure yesterday!”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not complaining. I’m very grateful for both of you,” I say by rote, knowing it’s the quickest way to nip their spiral in the bud. “I was just wondering if we could focus the energy a little more internally until we’re fully inside my apartment to keep from upsetting my new neighbors?”
“Your new neighbor is Julia,” my dad points out brusquely. “And she’s known us her whole damn life. I don’t think she’s motherfluffing surprised by any of it.” Raising his voice and canting his head, he asks her directly. “Are you, Jules?”
“No!” she yells back from across the hall, where her mom and dad have the enviable ability to be quiet.
I sigh. “She’s just saying that because she’s scared of you.”
“Scared? Of me?” He turns fully toward the door this time. “You’re not scared of me, are you, Julia?”
“No, sir!” she yells back.
“But I am,” Kline, her dad and my dad’s involuntary best friend/current enemy, adds. “And Ace is right. You’re louder than hell right now.”
“Oh, whoops,” my dad says, seemingly taking Mr. Brooks’s word over my own. “I’ll take it down a notch.” This level of compliance is in no way normal, but since the rift, and my five hours ofbegginghim to make it right, he’s been making an effort to be a less pointy version of the thorn in Kline Brooks’s side.
Even amid the display of my worthlessness in the behavior-influencing department, I’m thankful he’s at least taking that seriously.
