It was Pete’s turn next, and as he took the mic, he said, “Well, that’s gonna be a tough act to follow.”
As all eyes shifted to Pete, I took Cooper’s hand and dragged him out to the hallway.
Out of earshot, I spun around, grabbed Cooper by the tie, pulled him in close, and said, “Where have you been?”
“Careful,” he said, disengaging from my grip.
“You literally missed the boat! Who does that? Even Pete didn’t miss the boat!”
Cooper nodded. “Yeah. It’s a long story.”
“Did you miss it by accident—or on purpose?”
Cooper looked up to think. “Little bit of both?”
“Don’t be infuriating,” I warned. “You quit! You left! You declared you were ‘done.’ What are you doing back?”
Cooper took a breath. “I changed my mind.”
“About what?”
“About quitting.”
Was that how it worked? He got to quit and then un-quit at random—and never experience any consequences? Were those the rules for Cooper? He could disappear from my life whenever he wanted and then just show back up like it was all fine?
No. He couldn’t say he was coming to rescue me—and then leave me to be murdered. He couldn’t offer to sing with me and then just disembark. He couldn’t move to London and never, ever explain why.
Not today.
“No,” I said then, turning and walking away.
“No what?” Cooper demanded, following me.
“No, you can’t change your mind. You can’t show up here with your mini banjo and your forearms and act like nothing happened. You left me. You said terrible things and walked off! You wouldn’t even let me explain!”
“Yeah,” Cooper said, nodding like he fully agreed. “I’m sorry about that.”
But I wasn’t done. The anger felt good.
I walked faster—but Cooper paced himself a half step behind me.
“And then I begged you for help,” I went on, “even knowing that you hadquit our friendship. Do you have any idea how desperate I must have been to do that? But I thought you were my person. I thought if anything ever really went down, you’d be there—no matter what. And something was really going down. I had faith in you like I don’t have faith in anyone else. And then you abandoned me.”
“I didn’t abandon you.”
“What part of ‘I quit, I’m done’ and thenleaving the shipisn’t abandoning me?”
“I was just—having a moment.”
“Weren’t we all?”
“I nevermeant it, I mean.”
“I’m not sure if that’s better or worse.”
“Seeing you with Finn that morning—kind of put me in a mood.”
“A ‘mood’?” I glanced back. “More like a blind rage.”
