Cal wasn’t at all happy about that, if his frown was any indication. He inhaled deeply and, as he exhaled, flexed and fisted his hands on top of his quads.
“What do you wanna know?”
“Just what I said. What happened that made you two enemies?”
Cal glanced at me, then back at Trent, and shrugged.
“Jack?”
Here was the thing. I believed therapy was helpful, but I also believed it only worked when a person wanted it to. For this, neither of us wanted it to. So, in a show of solidarity, I shrugged too.
Trent sighed and leaned forward, placing his clasped hands on his desk. “What’s going on between you two?”
“There’s nothing between us,” Cal snapped.
“That’s a good start. Why not?” Trent said. “You two actually have a lot in common.”
“Not likely,” I muttered, thinking only of my crush and Cal’s bullheaded, backwoods country self.
“Did you know your dads are both in the medical field?”
I shook my head and didn’t bother to see how Cal answered. His family had money, and I only knew that because of the truck he drove and the neighborhood we lived in.
“At the same hospital,” Trent went on. “You’ve each got one sibling. You’re both athletic and playing similar sports.” I snorted at that, but Trent ignored it. “And you’re both workinghard to get into prestigious colleges. Harvard,” Trent said, raising his brows at me. “MIT,” he added, motioning toward Cal.
Seriously? All this time, both of us wanted to end up moving to the same area for college? I glared at Cal, who was probably thinking the exact same thing. Fate hated us. At least Boston was too big to run into each other, unlike here.
“If you two can learn to work together without a squeak of complaint, I might be convinced to write a letter of recommendation for you.”
That … That would actually be kind of awesome. Would Cal go for it? Could we convince the school we were done with this rivalry if it meant helping our college aspirations?
Trent rambled on about his own high school years and college prep, as if any of it was relatable to us, and then jarred me back into the moment when he said, “We’ll start this with a little exercise. Exchange phone numbers.”
Um, what?
I blinked, then blinked at Cal, and we turned to Trent at the same time.
“Why?” Cal asked.
“Positive in, positive out,” Trent said with a creepy smile. “On our session days, you both will text something about yourselves to each other. And keep it friendly,” he quickly added at the end.
“Why?” I echoed Cal like a dumbass, but really, though, why?
“Because you’ll be surprised how simple acts of discourse can open you to new ideas, new emotions. With as much as you two have in common, I’m sure it will come about quickly, and you’ll see just how easily you could be friends instead of enemies.”
Trent sat back with a squeak of his chair and held his hands over his soft middle. “And you’ll show me your phones each session so I can check.”
“Whoa, not cool,” Cal said.
“Hella invasion of privacy,” I said at the same time.
Trent rolled his eyes. “Fine. But you’ll tell me what each of you learned about the other.” No one said anything for a moment. For me, it was because my jaw was still on the floor, and then Trent added, “Go on. Swap numbers right now and say hello.”
Neither of us reached for our phones. I frowned at Cal as if Trent’s idea was his fault, and I’d be damned if I’d be the one to make the first move. Cal probably thought the same. Even who got their phone out first was a fucking fight between us.
Finally, I rolled my eyes and dug into my pocket. Cal smirked, the stubborn asshole, and shoved a hand in his own. Jesus Christ, this guy. I rattled off my number, quickly so he’d have to ask me to repeat it, but the dipshit caught every single digit.
Unknown number
