Page 27 of The Moment I Knew

I closed my eyes for half a second. “I didn’t ask.”

“Didn’t say you did.”

“Then stop talking.”

“Can’t. I’m bored.”

I picked up my Pencil and hovered it over the tablet, hoping to silently dismiss him. “Then go back to work.”

He didn’t move. “And defy labor laws? I’m entitled to a break.”

“And you want to spend it watching me do homework?”

He ignored my point as he leaned and looked at my paper. “You’re writing around your point,” he said, doubling down on his argument.

I stared at the words on the page, wishing I had a rebuttal for him but knowing I didn’t. This was my major Independent Study Project for the semester and my teacher was a harsh grader, so I’d been trying to stick close to all the articles I’d bookmarked earlier, but he was right.

My shoulders sagged despite myself. I’d spent an hour rewriting that paragraph last night. An hour.

I felt Cole’s smirk without even looking at him.

“You’re enjoying this,” I muttered.

“A little,” he admitted. “You get this face when you’re mad at facts.”

I closed the tablet with more force than necessary. “You could’ve just said you were smart.”

“You wouldn’t have believed me if I did.” He got up, righting the chair back at its spot. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

He stuck his hands in his pockets and wandered back over to the counter casually without looking back. I stared down at my notebook, at the neat lines of my handwriting, the crossed-out sentences, the thesis that now needed fixing.

Cole was so annoying. I picked up my pencil again.

Annoying. And also unfortunately helpful.

ten

“Nope. Absolutely not. I refuse.” I slammed my locker door shut and turned away from my twin, who was looking at me with puppy dog eyes. I started to walk down the near-empty hallway, but she was right beside me, a pout on her lips.

“Why do you hate the coffee shop so much?” Ainsley demanded as she caught up to me. “It has good drinks, the vibes are fun, the⁠—”

“Barista is hot?” I finished for her.

“And dangerous,” she said. She gripped my arm, eyes wide and excited. “He’s allegedly been to juvie, remember?”

“That’s just a rumor,” I said, surprising even myself with the defense of Cole. Ainsley only stopped for a second before continuing on, completely unphased by my words.

“But it’s also, like, the only place around to just hang out! Especially since the other coffee shop had that accident. Come on, please?”

“We can hang out at home,” I said, although I could feel how lame the suggestion was as it came out of my mouth.

“That’s no fun and you know it,” Ainsley said. “Besides, Clementine said she’d drive us so it’s not even like we have to walk all the way or anything.”

I pushed open the doors to the parking lot, a cool gust of autumn air blowing my hair off my face. “You can just go without me. I’ll catch a ride home with Lavender.”

Ainsley stepped directly in front of me, blocking my path away from this conversation before I could admit too much. She looked at me with a searching gaze. “Do you not like my friends?” she demanded.

I felt a brief sense of relief that she thought I disliked her friends and not that I was keeping a massive secret from her, though the relief quickly faded into guilt as the realization hit. I’ve never lied to my twin before. I’ve never lied to anyone before, if I was being honest. And the idea that I was keeping something so big from her was starting to get to me. Maybe she could sense it too and that’s why we’d been seeing so much less of each other lately.