Aubrey snorts.“Lola—”
“No, seriously,” Lola keeps going, now totally excited.“I told Jace the other day, it was probably some senior bitch who thinks sucking off the quarterback counts as team spirit.”
That’s it.I lose it.
A laugh punches out of me, so unexpected, that it startles all three of us.Aubrey’s eyes snap wide before she bursts out laughing too, clutching her stomach and shaking her head.Lola’s already collapsed in the back seat, wheezing so hard she sounds asthmatic.
And for a second, it’s perfect.
Three girls in a car.Just ugly laughs, snorts, and the kind of joy that burns quick and hot.
The laughter gradually fades, thinning out between shaky breaths.My cheeks are damp, my ribs hurt, and for a moment I forget why I was bleeding in the first place.
Then I remember.
I wipe my eyes and look out the windshield, voice soft.“I have his jacket.And his ring.”My hand forms a fist in my lap.“Can you give them to Noah?”My voice nearly breaks.“To give to Reece.”
Aubrey nods.
Movement outside grabs my attention.Across the parking lot, Tia walks confidently through the lot, Jace right beside her, hands in his pockets, head tilted toward her with that laid-back smirk.Her arm brushes against Jace’s, and even that seems rehearsed.
“Are you ever gonna forgive him?”Aubrey asks, her voice directed at the back seat.
Lola doesn’t respond right away.She leans her head back against the seat.“He fucked up,” she says finally.“Said shit about Sam.So no.Not yet.Not until he earns it.”
Aubrey looks back at her.“It hurt him today.With you ignoring him.”
“He deserved it,” Lola scoffs.
“I know.But still, when you ignored him, it hit him harder than you think.”
“Maybe,” Lola says, voice flat.“But he doesn’t look hurt now.”
We all look out through the front windshield.
Jace is laughing at something Tia says, his whole posture relaxed, casual, and at ease.
“He looks like he’s got a sure thing with her,” Lola says.
Then nothing.No more punchlines or sass from Lola.Just silence.
Lola sinks into the seat, eyes on the floor, shoulders tense.
And I catch it in the rearview mirror; her face falls, but it’s enough to see that whatever she says, Jace means more to her than she wants to admit.
Aubrey moves next to me and raises her eyebrows.That look says it all.
She saw it too.
I say nothing as I reach for the keys and slide them into the ignition.The engine turns over.I ease the car out of the lot.Jace and Tia shrink in the rearview.
When we pull up in front of my house, Dad’s there, hosing off his truck.His flannel sleeves are rolled up, arms dripping with water, boots soaked from standing too close to the spray.He looks up when he hears us, eyes squinting against the sun.
“Hey, girls!”he says as we step out of the car.
“Hi, Mr.Carter,” Aubrey calls out.
“Hey, Mr.C,” Lola says.
