“Sure.” I didn’t say another word as I walked over to the one Hope had been standing in and started to take it down. I may not have been good at the actual sport, but I could figure out any puzzle like a pro, and that was exactly what taking these goals down was. We had them bundled up in no time.
We headed over to where Cade was marking some things off a clipboard.
“Thanks, girls.” Cade grinned, the kind of grin he used to flash at me, and I blinked. There’d been a time where I skipped into his house and waited for that grin to come my way, but that was before…
Before that day.
Before my life change
d forever.
I’d never again be that girl, the one he first met, and the single thought sobered me and had me pulling back my shoulders. I had to remember where I was, but most importantly, who I was. I wasn’t like most of the girls at this school. Their idea of baggage was their parents not buying them the car they wanted. Or not getting to go away to Mexico for their eighteenth birthday.
“No problem,” I answered Cade, my tone coming out stiff and not like me at all. Even Hope raised her brows at me. “We’ll take them inside.”
I didn’t stick around to wait for what he said. Instead, I spun and headed inside. The end-of-day bell was ringing, and the locker room would now be empty. Hope was trying to keep up with me, but I was on a mission to run away from my memories.
Having Cade back waged a war inside me. He’d been my first crush, but he was also a reminder of the one day in my life I tried my hardest to forget. He was a living, breathing, memory I couldn’t escape.
“Jeez, Aria! Wait up.”
I shook my head, and placed the goal outside the equipment room which sat between the two locker rooms. “Sorry.” I flashed her a small smile, the most I could manage with my skin crawling. “Mom will probably be waiting for me.”
Hope nodded like she understood, but I could see the doubt written all over her features. She knew when to push and when not to, and this was a time she shouldn’t. I needed to process things and categorize them into their own little folders. Or find relief someway else.
We stayed silent as we headed into the locker room, got dressed, and headed out front together. Hope’s bus was pulling into the lot as we got to the top of the stairs.
“I’ll see you Monday!” she shouted, and with a wave, she ran across the lot, faster than she had ever run in PE.
The lot was emptying of cars, but the one I wanted to see most wasn’t there. I needed to get home and lock myself in my room to be able to take a full breath. I needed to breathe again. But Mom wasn’t here. Her red car wasn’t pulling into the lot, and the longer I stood on the steps, the more I wondered if she’d forgotten to pick me up.
I shot off a text to her and followed it up ten minutes later with a call, but it went unanswered. This wasn’t the first time she’d been late, but if she didn’t arrive within the next thirty minutes, I’d start walking.
Deciding to give my legs a rest, I plopped down on one of the top concrete steps and refreshed my cell constantly in case I’d missed a message. She’d worked the late shift last night, and Sal gave me a ride to school this morning, so it could only mean she’d worked the early shift today.
Mom and Sal were expanding the business and opening up a new diner, which meant they were gone more and more. If only I could pass my driving test. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t tried, because I had, I just…couldn’t get it right. The control a car gave me scared the life out of me, and as soon as I sat behind the wheel, I froze. Nothing I did could stop it, so I’d decided for the rest of my life, I’d rely on rides and public transportation.
“Aria?”
I closed my eyes, wishing I hadn’t heard his voice, but I couldn’t deny it. His footsteps were coming closer, so I opened my eyes back up and turned my head to look at him, trying my hardest to paste a smile on my face. “Hey.”
“What are you doing?” He moved down the steps so that, when he sat, his face was the same height as mine.
“Waiting for my ride.”
He tilted his head to the side and looked around at the now nearly empty lot save for a couple of teachers’ cars. It was Friday, which meant most of the teachers didn’t stay late. They were as eager as the students to get home and start their weekends.
“Jan?” Cade asked, and I nodded in reply. He stared at me, blinking several times, and then stepped back. “Come on, I’ll give you a ride.”
“What?” I shook my head in refusal. “No, I’m good. I’ll wait here—”
“Don’t be stupid.” He rolled his eyes, looking more like the sixteen-year-old I remembered than the mid-twenties man standing in front of me. “I’m heading that way anyway.”
“You…are?”
“Yep.” He puffed out his chest. “You’re now looking at the proud owner of a three-bedroom home over on Wilmont.”
“Wilmot.” I choked out a laugh as I stood, my body making the decision for me. “As in, the street two blocks away from my apartment?”