Page 2 of Five

“Oh, God,” Tera says. “Did someone die? Oh, Rory—”

“No,” I say quickly. “No. No one died. It’s just…” I sigh and then walk over to my stripped bed and take a seat on the sagging mattress. “I just need to go home for a few days. That’s all. I have something to sort out and then I can meet you up in the Hamptons.” I look up at both their concerned faces. “Will that be OK?”

“Oh, honey,” Tera says, sitting down next to me. “Of course.” She swipes a stray piece of hair away from my eyes and tucks it behind my ear. “Whatever you need. We can take you to the airport.” She looks up at her brother. “Can’t we, Cliff?”

“Absolutely,” Cliff says, crossing the few feet of distance between us, kneeling down on one knee. “Anything you need, Rory.”

“I’m sorry. I know this is probably ruining everything, but…”

But Five Aston has come home. After all these years, he’s there. And I’m here. I cannot be here when he’s there. And I cannot tell my boyfriend and best friend any of this, either, so I just keep quiet.

“Don’t worry about us, sweetie,” Tera says. “You take care of you. We’ll be here when you can come. And if you can’t come, I’ll come to you, how’s that?”

She’s such a good friend. “I’m so lucky to have you,” I say. Then to Cliff, “You too. You guys are the best friends a person could ask for.”

I don’t miss the raised eyebrow I get from Cliff at the word ‘friends.’ But I don’t elaborate either.

Five is home.

Five.

Five.

Five.

It echoes in my head like some kind of special effects through a microphone.

“Rory?” Cliff asks.

I’ve been waiting for Five Aston to come home from England for six years.

“Sorry,” I say, managing a smile. But I don’t feel like smiling and I’m not happy about this. Not at all. He stayed away for six years. Six. Long. Years. And he did that for a reason. He’s not here. Not in New Jersey where I am. He’s there. In Colorado, where I’m not.

But I don’t care. I’m gonna have my say with Five Aston if it’s the last thing I do.

“Sorry,” I say again. “I’m just a little preoccupied with the news, that’s all.” I stand up, making Cliff stand as well, since he’s crowding me. And then I sling my pack over my shoulder and grab the final box left in the room I’ve lived in for the past two years and look around. I won’t be back. No matter what happens with Five, I won’t ever come back here. And the past two years were good. The five that came before that weren’t. Those were horrible because I was left waiting… and wondering. Why did he leave and never come back? Why?

But the last two—the ones I spent with Tera here in this apartment…

“Do you want to talk about it?” Tera asks, holding onto my arm.

I shake my head. “Not now. Not yet. Maybe when I get back, OK? I just… I just need some time to process.”

“What time does your flight leave?” Cliff asks.

I look down at my phone, tab open the airline app I’ve been using since I left home for college, and check. “Three hours. I guess I better hurry.”

They drop me at the airport departures lane. Cliff and I have an awkward kiss. I was aiming for the cheek, Five still on my mind, but he was aiming for the lips, so we met somewhere in corner-of-the-mouth territory. Tera kisses me too—on the cheek, no misunderstanding there—and then I quickly turn away and go inside to the first-class check-in.

My dad is gonna freak out when he finds out Oliver booked me a first-class ticket, but I won’t be the one to get that lecture. Ollie will. So I let it go and enjoy the service.

On the plane, I ask for a drink while we wait for takeoff. I really need a drink. So I get Jack Daniels in a little single-serving bottle and drink it straight from the plastic cup with ice. It’s barely noon, so I get some looks—and I get carded—but I’m twenty-one now. So they leave me alone after that.

When I get off the plane in Colorado there’s a thundercloud coming in over the mountains. The sky is every shade of gray, and blue, and purple you can imagine. God, I’ve missed this place. I haven’t been home since Christmas and it was a mild Christmas, so I didn’t have any pretty storms to look at.

I grab a rental—also prearranged by Oliver via text message—and head out of the airport to make my way up north. No one is home at our family farm. They are all in Florida with Ford and Ashleigh and the twins for a Disney World trip. So I don’t bother driving out to Bellvue when I get into Fort Collins. I stop at my cousin Sparrow’s house. Belle and Oliver are staying with her. Belle has been to Disney every year since she was born—our mom has a thing for Disney. So she said no this time around. And Oliver insisted he was too old for it, even though Jasmine went, and she’s three years older than him.

It makes me laugh a little. How much Oliver wants to be like Five. He has always idolized him. And even though he’s only twelve, he acts like he’s twenty-seven. Just like Five did when he was that age.