Page 86 of Where Roads Lead

I was running on the weirdest night’s sleep I’d ever had and a sense of restlessness coursing through me that I needed to dispel.

I started moving toward the town square, hoping that a few laps around it might ease some of the tension radiating off me. I pulled my baseball cap off, wringing it between my hands as if I could take out the stress I was feeling on an old Red Sox cap.

Somehow, it didn’t do shit for me.

I needed to take a break. Go somewhere far away, where no one could bother me or ask me for anything. I just needed peace and quiet and solitude. Mostly, I just needed to be alone—

“Elsie?” I heard myself say her name, only audible to my own ears, when I saw her across the square.

You could spot her from a mile away. What with the hair and everything, she didn’t exactly blend in.

“Elsie,” I said again, louder this time.

My feet were already moving toward her before my brain could keep up.

She paused, hearing her name and turned in my direction. In her arms she carried two big bags that looked humorous against her small frame.

“Will?” She squinted, giving me the once over as I approached her.

“What are you—” I started to ask, but she startled me by making a loud noise of surprise.

“Gasp!” she said, eyes widening. “The baseball cap isn’t glued backward on your head?”

I rolled my eyes, something I found myself doing a lot in her presence.

“Sorry.” She laughed. “I just don’t think I’ve ever seen you without it. Who knew you were hiding a full head of hair under that hat?”

I ran a hand through it self-consciously before tugging the hat firmly back into place.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, because for some reason whenever I saw the girl, I wanted to talk to her. Even though I hated talking. And hearing people talk. But with her, all my prior tendencies were thrown out the window.

It was unnerving meeting this version of myself I hadn’t ever encountered before. It threw me off balance in a way that didn’t feel comfortable.

But before I opened my mouth, she beat me to it.

“I can’t be seen talking to you in public like this,” she said, looking over her shoulder like a woman being hunted.

Why the hell not? Was my first instinctive thought.

Because for some reason, my brain only felt calm and quiet lately when I was around her, as if her noise drowned out the rest of the world in a way I was entirely okay with.

“Don’t tell me Ava already got to you,” I said, hoping I didn’t look as pissed off as I felt.

“What? No.” She furrowed my brows. “The good people of Colbridge, however, had a lot of opinions about our friendship. So, I’d rather not add fuel to the fire.”

“Like what?”

“Like, we’re apparently dating.”

“What?”

“Oh, yeah. And that us falling asleep at the café last night was the grand finale of an utterly romantic night, worthy of a John Hughes credit.”

“John Hughes movies aren’t romantic, but I get your point.”

“What? They totally are.”

“Not a single one of them is,” I argued.