AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I dig out my phone, deciding to send Emaline a text now.
Me: Hey … So, I’m not sure if you noticed I’m gone or not, but I just wanted to let you know that I left the house. With everything going on, I needed a break. This is just a lot to take in …
I don’t know what else to tell her, so I hit send then hold my breath and wait for a reply. Almost instantaneously, a message pings through.
Emaline: Sky, I know you’re probably scared and upset, but I need you to come home right now. It’s not safe for you to be wandering around alone.
Me: I’m not alone. I’m with my friends.
Emaline: Your friends aren’t one of us, sweetie. If something happens, they can’t protect you.
Me: Please just let me hang out with them for a couple of days. I promise I’ll come back as soon as I clear my head.
And after I’ve gone through the stuff in the storage unit.
Emaline: Where are you right now?
Me: Heading to Nina’s house. She’s my best friend. I’m in her car right now, perfectly safe.
Emaline: Where does she live?
Me: In Honeyton.
Emaline: I need the address.
I pause. If I give her the address, is she going to come get me?
Me: Why?
Emaline: So I can send someone to pick you up. I know that’s not what you want to hear, and I understand that you’ve been through a lot, but you need to come home right now.
Me: I have no home.
I type and send the words without really thinking, sadness clutching my chest.
Another message buzzes through.
Emaline: Oh sweetie, that’s not true at all. I know this has to be hard—learning what you learned after losing your parents—but I promise that, with time, things will get easier. And our home is your home.
As tears well in my eyes, I shove my phone into my pocket. Her kindness is making me too emotional, and the sky is reacting by pouring down more rain.
“Holy crap, this is some storm,” Nina remarks, peering up at the sky through the windshield. “And it was clear skies when I left my house.”
“Storms are pretty unpredictable.” To most people anyway.
To me, they’re the most predictable thing in my life right now.
By the time we arrive at Nina’s house, it’s nearing eleven o’clock at night and the party is in full swing. Nina’s house, which is similar to the size of my old home, is crammed with people, most of which I know but rarely talk to. They are all dancing, drinking, laughing, and smoking. The place reeks like cigarettes and beer, and the air is laced with smoke so potent my eyes immediately water.
“I’m back!” Nina singsongs as we enter the kitchen.
Gage, who’s sitting on the counter, chatting with a red-headed girl who looks a year or two older than us, smiles at Nina. Then his smile morphs into a full-blown grin when his gaze lands on me.
“What the hell? I didn’t know you were coming.” He jumps off the counter and wraps his arms around me in a hug, smelling like pot and beer and everything that is Gage.
“Hey.” I loop my arms around the back of his neck as he spins me around. “Didn’t Nina tell you she was going to pick me up?”
He shakes his head, slanting back to meet my gaze. “She told me she was going to get a surprise, but that’s it.” He kisses my cheek. “Best surprise ever.”
