My shoulder jerked a little. “He never realized I had the biggest crush on him, I don’t think.”
“But you were friends?”
“He was basically my best friend from about fourteen to sixteen.”
Lake made a “huh” kind of sound. “You said before that he vanished?”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah, his mom got freaked out by something and started to homeschool him. Then she barely let him go anywhere after a while.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was enough.
“Well, from what I gathered, he thinks he just saw his childhood friend who took one look at him and decided to run away. He’s confused and a bit upset, but I feel like he’s trying to hide it.”
I let out a tiny whimper I couldn’t control. The last thing I wanted was to make Ben feel bad. “I think he was the first person I ever loved.”
“Oh, River.” Lake gathered me closer and squeezed me. “You need to talk to him, okay?”
Technically, I knew that. I would have to have a conversation with Ben at some point, but somehow, I was immediately transferred to this place of both teenage crush-related angst and something else, something…worse.
“I’ll try,” I promised. “But…not right now.”
Lake sighed. “All right. Well, it’s still hours until dinnertime, so you gather yourself a bit. You’ll have to meet him then if not earlier.”
I lifted my head to look at him. “Why?”
His eyes turned determined in a familiar way. My best friend had decided something.
“Because I won’t let you hide from him any longer than that. He doesn’t deserve it and neither do you. How much you tell him about what feelings you had then is up to you, but you should try to solve this somehow, because he might be here for several weeks, River.”
I flopped away from him a bit theatrically and whined.
“No. That’s not going to work. I don’t feel sorry for you. So, stop feeling sorry for yourself.” He patted my thigh and got up, then walked to the door. Before he left, he turned back. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
* * * *
Half an hour or so later there was another knock on my door. Without thinking, I called out “Yeah?” thinking it was Rey.
It wasn’t.
A head of copper-colored hair peeked through the gap. “Hi,” Ben said in an awkward, hesitant tone. “Can I come in?”
I’d been lying on my bed, staring out of the window. It wasn’t much of a view, mostly just the tops of the trees in front of the house, but it was still nicer than the concrete and brick from my old window in New York.
“Sure,” I replied, not wanting to be rude.
He stepped inside and closed the door, then stood there, clearly trying not to wring his hands.
“Lake told me you’re his best friend.”
“Yeah, we’ve known each other for years.”
“And that you met in New York?” His gaze flicked between things, never straying to my face, a nervous thing I recognized from the past.
“Right. We moved here after his aunt left him this place.”
Feeling awkward, I sat up against the headboard. There was an armchair in the room, so I gestured at it. Ben deserved better than to stand by the door like that, no matter how I felt about him being in my space.
“Thanks.” He sat, then glanced at my face before looking away again. “I…I didn’t expect you to be here.”
