THIRTEEN
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Per our conversation
Miss Delacroix,
Duly noted.
Have a safe weekend.
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
MAISIE
I feel slightlyguilty that I made a promise that I am absolutely not going to keep.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
I open the front door of my apartment, and Lennon’s standing there, slightly out of breath, her long, curly red hair flying in ten different directions. “What’s going on? Are you okay? What kind of emergency are we talking about right now, Mais?”
My brow arches as her chest heaves, and she presses her palm against it, dragging in breaths. “Did you… run all the way here? Why are you so out of breath right now?”
She looks confused, the space between her brow pinching. “What? No, it’s like three miles or something. That would be insane.”
“Never mind.” I reach out and tug her inside, pushing the front door closed, the words spilling from my mouth before it’s even all the way shut behind us.
“Okay, I am not supposed to tell you this, which I realize is such a betrayal—the fact that I haven’t yet, I mean—but like, this is major, Len. Like… major, major, and you can’t tell anyone. Not evenSaint.That’s how serious I am.”
“Oh shit.” Lennon’s eyes widen.
I nod, pulling my lip between my teeth nervously. I’ve never been worried in my entire life to tell my best friend anything, but I’m nearly shaking as I walk over to the couch and plop down onto the cushions.
Not only because ofwhatI’m about to tell her, but because I’m overwhelmed and confused, and it’s just a lot at once.
“Promise?”
“Um, duh. I’d hide a body for you, Mais, which I really, really hope is not what this is, but you know that I will. Even if I have to stop and throw up, I will. For you.”
She’s so ridiculous, but it’s exactly what I needed and immediately helps with the nervous energy bouncing around in my stomach. A laugh pours out of me as I shake my head. “It’s not.”
I don’t add that it might be just as insane though.
The other night, after the hockey game, I came to one very important realization in Wilder’s office.
A realization that now that I’m aware of it, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.
Okay, slightly obsessing over.
I can’t just act as if it didn’t happen because I think it changes everything.
I realized after I spent the last few days replaying it in my head over and over, trying to, I don’t know, decipher our entire interaction, that I need Lennon.
There’s no way that I can keep this to myself any longer when I feel like I might explode from holding it all inside, even if that means asking her to keep it a secret… and breaking my promise to Wilder.
