Page 26 of Bend

It doesn’t feel like pressure, or like I’m on display.

It feels normal.

Like despite how messy, chaotic and completely unplanned all of this is, somehow I’m sitting exactly where I’m supposed to be. With the sun on my skin, the ocean in the background, and girls I never thought I’d actually talk to, laughing around a table like this is just another Friday.

I take a bite of my burger and glance at them, really look at them, and it hits me.

Somehow, I actually fit here, like I was always meant to. Which is ironic, considering I guess when you unpack all the lies, and my mom leaving here before I was born. Guess I really was kinda meant to be here.

“I expected this to feel like an interrogation,” I admit randomly.

Cece squints at me. “What, why?”

“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “I mean you guys clearly all know who I am. Why I’m here, I guess I just assumed there’d be… questions.”

Lena waves a hand dismissively. “We don’t need to know anything you don’t want to tell. Besides, we all have shit we don’t like to talk about,”

She doesn’t say it, but I know immediately by the way her expression drops and her eyes find their way to the golden horizon on the ocean, that she means Cruz.

Bex nods. “She’s right. Honestly, we’re just happy you’re here. Everything else you can unpack when you’re ready, and we’ll be here to listen.”

“Yeah,” Cece says. “Every family has their drama. Their secrets. Their novela level bullshit.”

That lands somewhere I wasn’t expecting.

Because I had prepared for resistance. For judgment. For thin smiles, tight questions and alot of awkwardness. I had prepared to defend myself, and yet they’re not asking for anything.

Shit, that’s almost harder to process.

The breeze from the ocean rolls across the deck. The waves keep moving in slow, steady lines behind us, the sound mixing with the chatter from the café and the occasional clatter of plates from inside.

By the time we’re scraping the last bites off our plates and the iced coffees have melted into watery puddles of ice, Lena glances down at her phone and groans.

“Shit.”

Cece immediately looks over. “What?”

Lena sighs as she pushes her chair back from the table. “I have to go. I’ve got a shift at the rehab center in an hour and if I don’t leave now I’m going to be late.”

Cece grabs her own phone and checks the time, then dramatically drops her head back against the chair.

“Oh my god, same,” she groans. “I have a set I have to prep for. This is criminal. I was just getting emotionally attached to burger girl.”

I snort softly and wipe my hands on a napkin. “Tragic.”

She straightens and points a fry at me like she’s making an official declaration.

“I’m still judging you for ordering beef at a seafood café.” she warns.

“Good,” I reply dryly. “I was worried you were starting to respect me.”

Lena laughs as she walks around the table and pulls me into a quick hug before leaving.

“But seriously, it was really good meeting you,” she says warmly.

“Yeah,” I say, returning the hug. “You too.”

Cece swings behind my chair on her way out and squeezes my shoulder, her bracelets clinking softly as she does.