For the first couple minutes Peyton disappears, I’m excited. But after four minutes pass, then five, then six, I start getting anxious. It was a bad idea. A dumb gift. I had snuck it into the inner pocket of her bag before she left for break, thinking it was a good idea. Now, it just feels like too much.
I’m halfway through typing a humiliated “ignore that” text when the bubbles pop up.
ICARUS
Sorry. Harlowe and Bails are hammered and I’m trying to coax them out of the bar with a churro.
So far, unsuccessful.
Sounds about right.
ME
The bars are open on Christmas?
ICARUS
Monsey’s is like a hospital. 24/7, 365 days a year.
Holy shit.
ME
What?
ICARUS
Apparently Harlowe and Clay fucked???
What dimension are we in???
ME
WHAT??
How?
When?
Why?
ICARUS
I have no earthly idea.
Look, I’ve got to get them home, but I’ll text you when I get back to my parents’, okay?
I don’t know why my stomach sinks a little. Or why a hot flicker in my chest I wasn’t even aware of feels like it’s extinguishing itself. I brush it off, shoot back a thumbs up, and toss my phone on the nightstand.
Then I grab a handful of green M&Ms, my brand new book, and curl up in bed, diving into it.
Nearly an hour later, I couldn’t tell you a single thing about this book. I’ve read the first chapter three times now, maybe four. My eyes keep moving across the page, but all I can think about is Peyton, and that first morning at the rink.
The way Peyton smiled at me. How fast that smile dropped. The way her shoulder brushed mine when we hid, both of us sweating, breathing hard. The way those honeycomb eyes lookedat me like I was something worth looking at. That morning turned my world upside down.
Sheturned my world upside down, and I’m starting to like how it makes my hair stick up.
I flip the page, confident that I didn’t absorb a single sentence from the last one, when my phone lights up on the nightstand. I’m not going to talk about how fast I grab it. Or the stupid way my heart skips when I see her name.
