Page 6 of The Moment I Knew

Great.

He turned away abruptly, calling out another order with more force than necessary.

“Well,” Ainsley said cheerfully. “That went great.”

“I told you we shouldn’t have come,” I muttered.

“You told me a lot of things,” she said. “You also told me he didn’t seem scary, which is clearly not true.”

“He’s not scary,” I said, even as my pulse thudded in my ears. “He’s just… grumpy.”

She hesitated. “Okay, but—hypothetically—if he really was expelled for fighting, you spilling coffee on him earlier today would not be ideal.”

I stared at her. “Why would you say that?”

“Well, it’s true!” She started to look a little panicked now. She leaned closer to me. “Do you think it’s true?”

“Do I think what’s true?”

“The juvie thing.”

I grimaced. “You cannot just say that in public.”

She glanced around nervously. “I whispered.”

“That doesn’t make it better.”

“Well?” she pressed.

I hesitated. “I don’t know. He seemed rude, not violent.”

“That’s exactly what someone violent would want you to think,” she said seriously.

I rolled my eyes. “You watch too much true crime.”

“I watch a healthy amount of true crime, thank you.”

An arm landed heavily on my shoulders. “Well that’s a bold-faced lie,” Clementine announced, sticking her head between mine and Ainsley’s.

Ainsley shrieked in surprise, drawing the attention of the people in front of us, but luckily nobody else seemed to hear her over the sound of the music. I wasn’t sure Hot Barista would have been impressed by that.

“When did you get here?” Ainsley asked, putting a hand to her chest.

“When did you?” Clementine shot back. She dropped her arms from around our shoulders and adjusted her messy ponytail of pink hair. “If you told me you were coming tonight, I could have given you a ride.”

Clementine was a year older than us and one of Ainsley’s friends from the swim team, which meant that while we couldn’t get our learner’s permits for another two weeks, she could drive unsupervised and even had her own car. I was insanely jealous of her. I would give anything to have that kind of freedom, to be able to go anywhere I wanted without having to explain.

If nothing else, it would make seeing Dad a whole lot easier.

“Anyway, Reese and I have a couch over in the corner,” Clementine said, pointing across the room. “Come sit with us once you get your drinks, okay?”

Ainsley nodded happily and Clementine disappeared back into the crowd, leaving us inching forward with the line again. We were only two people back now, close enough that I could hear the coffee being brewed better than I could hear the music. I kept my eyes focused on the girl working the cash register now, reminding myself that I wouldn’t actually need to talk to Hot Barista.

That was, until the girl moved aside to make the next drinks and he took her place just as we stepped up.

Up close, he looked… the same. Annoyed. Focused. He didn’t look at me at first, just wiped his hands on a towel and glanced at the register.

“What can I get you?” His voice was flat.