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But still, I guess I wanted to put off telling him a little longer. Pretend nothing has changed. But avoiding him, not taking his calls, can’t last forever.
Now it’s time to face the music.
Mom is out of town—she went back to our little hometown of Destiny to get some things we left there in storage, and after that, in a few days, we’ll be moving out. I would hate it if he’d waited so long to tell me had he been the one moving away, and here I am, trying to protect myself from the inevitable. Thinking of myself only.
Suck it up, Gigi. Come on.
But of course the moment I decide to get on with it, Jarett is nowhere to be found. He’s not in the bus home after school, and he’s not in the yard of the Lowes’ house. The house itself is dark, no lights in the windows despite the grayness of the overcast afternoon, no movement visible inside.
I stand at the fence, staring at the house, unease stirring in my stomach.
On a whim, I whip out my phone and call Jarett again.
He doesn’t reply.
Chewing on my lower lip hard enough to draw blood, I open the gate and walk up to the house. I climb the porch steps and ring the bell.
It’s quiet inside. I ring again, shifting nervously from foot to foot, shivering in my light coat. I’m not even all that cold. The ice is all in my bones as I wait for Jarett to get the door.
But when the door finally opens, it’s not him looking back at me.
I open my mouth to say something—Hi? Who are you?—when I realize I know this guy.
Sebastian, the Lowes’ annoying son, leans against the doorframe and lifts a dark brow at me. “May I help you?”
I take an instinctive step back. Not that I know Sebastian personally, but rumors are he’s a cruel, obnoxious man.
“I’m looking for Jarett,” I manage through a throat gone dry.
“Jarett is... not here.”
I frown. “Where is he then?”
“Oh you know. Out and about.” He shrugs, his gaze flickering. “Like he does.”
That’s... all wrong. That’s not like Jarett at all.
My phone is still in my hand. I press redial, and from inside the house I hear the answering ring.
I look up.
Sebastian’s lip curls. “Ah hell,” he mutters and straightens, turning and walking back inside the house. “For you, man!”
Frowning, not sure what’s going on, I step inside, and there he is.
Jarett. Phone in hand. His frown matching mine.
He was here all along.
***
The afternoon light outlines his profile in silver. He’s propped his hip on one of the porch pillars and folded his muscular arms over his chest, gazing out at the garden and the street, his jaw tight.
“You’re leaving,” he mutters, his voice rough and low.
“Just moving to another neighborhood. I just wanted—”
“You’re fucking leaving, in a few days, and you’re only telling me now.”
