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“Sorry,” I apologize, breathing in relief. “I was just thinking about stuff.”
Gage and Nina trade a concerned look, and then Nina’s gaze zeroes in on me. “You know what I think we need?”
“A time machine so I can fast-forward six months into the future to when I turn eighteen?” I crack a joke.
She cranks up the defroster. “Nope. Although, that’d be awesome.”
“Yes, it would.” I straighten in the seat and lower my feet to the floorboard, watching the ice on the windshield melt away. “So, what do we need?”
She gives me a sly smile. “What’s the one thing that you’ve been wanting to do but have never had the balls to go through with?”
As I figure out what she means, I hastily shake my head. “Nope, not going to do it.”
“Aw, come on, Sky.” She taps the steering wheel with her palm. “This might be your last chance.”
“Yeah, the last chance to humiliate myself.” The last thing I need right now is to set off my emotions.
She steers onto the icy road and toward the center of town. “You won’t know that until you try.”
“I may not know how it’ll go down, but I have a pretty good idea of how it’ll end.” I roll up my window and recline back in my seat. “With me talking to him and then looking like a loser when he laughs in my face.”
She pops the end of a cigarette into her mouth and signals for me to light it for her. “Dude, Grey so messed up your head.”
I pick up the lighter and flick it on. “This isn’t about Grey.” That might be a lie.
Truthfully, I’m not sure if I’m just shy around guys or if Grey’s overdramatic rejection of my dance invite—Nina’s idea, not mine—in eighth grade permanently dented my self-esteem. And when I say overdramatic rejection, I mean he turned me down for the dance by standing up on the lunchroom table in front of the entire eighth grade and announced it to everyone. Even worse, I reacted by crying, which resulted in the pipes bursting and the entire school flooding.
Yeah, thanks for that, Grey.
Still, I can’t blame my lack of a dating life completely on him.
Dating sometimes leads to falling for someone, which can lead to heartbreak which, in my case, can then lead to what I can only guess would be flashfloods and wildfires. I mean, look at what happened with Grey. I barely knew him at the time and his rejection caused my ability to flood the entire school.
Of course, it doesn’t help that after Grey turned me down, he’s spent years relentlessly tormenting me, along with his friends. While I try to avoid him as much as possible and he generally doesn’t bother me when I’m around Nina and Gage, there have been a couple of incidents where he’s tormented me to the point where I’ve lost control over my ability and disaster soon followed.
As for the guy Nina wants me to talk to right now, I’m unsure if he’s an asshole or a nice guy, since I know nothing about him, not even his name or if he even lives in Honeyton. The only thing I do know is he visits the auto shop on the corner of Main Center Street and Winter Mourning Road every Friday evening around four o’clock, right when I’m heading home from school. I’m not certain what he does there or how long he stays there, just that he goes there. That’s it. Well, that and he’s extremely good-looking and mysterious, but the latter might only be because of my lack of information on him.
“You know Grey’s a jerk, right? He’s a cocky, arrogant douchebag who loves to humiliate women.” She inhales then exhales a cloud of smoke. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard him putting down a girl or slut-shaming them? He’s probably done it to at least half the girls in our school.”
I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “I already told you this isn’t about Grey.”
She removes the cigarette from her lips and gives me a disbelieving
look. “Do you understand, though, that Grey’s just an ass? Because, if you did understand that, I think you’d be more willing to do this.”
Gage squeezes my shoulder. “Don’t listen to her. If you don’t want to do it, don’t.” He reclines back in the seat. “Don’t let her use her peer pressure bullshit on you.”
She throws him a glare from over her shoulder. “I’m not trying to peer pressure her. I just think talking to this guy might be easier for her if she understands that she’ll never have to see him again. And it might help her get over her fear of rejection.” She looks at me. “But, if you don’t want to, just tell me to shut the fuck up.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I say with a small smile. Deep down, I know she has a point.
Ever since the fiasco with Grey, I’ve been afraid and have never dated anyone. I’ve never even kissed a guy.
Besides, I could use the distraction from the constant worrying of where the hell my parents are. And the emotions attached to that worry. As long as I don’t panic while talking to this guy, everything should be okay. What would I even have to panic about? Nina is right. I’ll never see him again.
“You know what? Let’s do it.” I glance at the clock. “If we leave now, we should get there right as he’s showing up.”
“Really?” Nina perks up.
