Unwritten (Woodlands 5)

She giggles. “Thankfully, no, but I am practicing my backflips.” Her eyes sparkle with happiness, which in turn fills me with happiness. Before she left, May was miserable. We’d sold our app and made out like bandits, but our lives took a weird turn. Instead of being the happiest people ever with our big, fat bank accounts, Marrow came into my life and May fell for the wrong guy. Now she’s riding ponies, eating snakes and ants, and having the best time of her life.

“Are you going to spend the rest of your life riding ponies in the d

esert?”

“Maybe?” She shrugs. “Look, we both know I was a mess when I left. I needed distance and being out here, meeting monks, learning to meditate, it’s all helped me heal.”

“I should join you, then, because my life is just as untidy.”

She wrinkles her nose. “Nah, you’d hate it out here. Besides, there’s no way for you to get to me. I’m leaving tomorrow.”

I try to keep the relief out of my face. I love May, but we’re so different. Working together is one thing. Vacationing together would break our precious bond.

“Be safe,” I tell her.

“I will. Love you, Laundry Basket.” She waves at the screen.

“Love you, too, May Day.” I blow her a kiss and then she’s gone.

I drum my fingers on my desk. It’s quiet in my parents’ house. Upstairs, Davis is in his old bedroom, playing “Come Alive” on his guitar. It’s been two days, yet he refuses to leave me and go back to his condo.

If he won’t leave me alone in the house, how’s he going to go on tour? Joining May is not a possibility. And I won’t interrupt my parents’ trip—they’re on a second honeymoon, trying to save their marriage.

What happened the last time Davis had to quit a band makes my stomach cramp. I’d eat a mouse and a snake before letting him travel down that dark road again.

So that leaves one option. I try the bait thing, luring Marrow out in the open and trapping him somehow. The notion makes me want to vomit, but I can’t allow my situation to stand in the way of Davis’s dreams.

Not this time.

Chapter Four

Adam

“You bang those cupboard doors any harder and they’re going to fall off,” my roommate Bo says as he strolls into the kitchen.

“Where the fuck are we keeping the coffee these days?” I grouch. The problem with living with four other guys is that shit keeps getting moved.

Bo reaches for a can behind the coffee pot. “Here. By the coffeemaker.”

I grab it and rip off the lid. “Well, it used to be in the cupboard next to the sink.”

“I moved it,” a new voice volunteers.

I look up from spooning grounds into the filter to see my best friend Finn amble into the kitchen. He and Bo work together flipping houses. They must be on their way to a job site.

“What’s up your ass?” Finn asks, opening the refrigerator door.

“Band shit.”

“Thought you were happy with it. Mal said you got an offer to go on tour. Want some?” he asks, pointing a carton of eggs in my direction.

I nod eagerly. I’m going to miss the bastard and his mad cooking skills when he moves out.

The whole dynamic of the house is changing. Finn’s buying a home with his girlfriend, Winter. Bo and Noah are graduating from college and moving to Chicago. It’s going to be Mal and me in this big fucking place and neither of us can make anything more than coffee.

I slap the lid of the coffeemaker down and join Bo at the table.

“Where’s AnnMarie?” I ask. AnnMarie is Bo’s girlfriend and probably his future wife. Every one of my friends is hooking up, and I’m still chasing girls at bars.