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Chapter 2
“Oh, this is a lot,” I said to myself as I sat in the seat of the moving truck. There were giant mirrors on both sides and I was so high up, it was like being on a throne.
“Okay, here we go.” I started the truck and slowly pulled out of the parking lot. I couldn’t believe how willingly they just handed me the keys to this potential death machine. They hadn’t even made me test-drive it around or anything. Seemed like there were a few flaws in that system.
After a few minutes I got the hang of the truck, the mirrors, and the feel of the pedals and steering wheel.
“I’ve got this,” I kept saying to myself.
* * *
Natalie lived in a massive apartment complex, and it took me a few laps around to find the entrance to her building and then find a place to put the truck. The movers were coming in two hours, so everything was on schedule.
I sat in the truck for fifteen minutes without moving. The air conditioner barely worked, and I had sweat rolling down my back, but I just couldn’t get out yet.
This was the part that I’d been dreading ever since Wyatt had asked me to do this. Now I had to face her.
I’m outside I texted her.
I got out of the truck and stumbled, because it was further to the pavement than I’d thought.
“Hey,” someone said, and I looked up to see her standing at the bottom of a set of outdoor stairs.
Oh.
Okay.
Wow.
After things had gone south with Natalie, I’d completely cut her out of my life. No following her on social media, no checking in, nothing. Sure, I’d still seen her come across my feed every now and then when we’d lived in the same town, but ever since she’d gone off to college, I’d been able to keep my life relatively Natalie free.
A lot could happen in four years.
She walked toward me, hesitating just a little. Her wild blonde hair was just a little frizzy from the heat. There were more piercings in her ear and a hoop in her nose that she hadn’t had the last time I saw her.
It wasn’t just the way she looked that was different. There was something slippery and intangible about how she’d changed. Like the air around her was different.
Then I realized I’d been staring at her and not saying anything and she probably was wondering if I was okay, so I spoke.
“Hey.”
That seemed to break a little bit of the spell and I took a shaky breath.
“Hey,” she said again. “Are you hungry?”
“Sure,” I said. While I was on the plane, I’d committed to myself that I was going to keep conversation to a minimum. No reminiscing about old times when we used to be friends. No catching up. Just business. Get through the week in one piece.
“Okay,” Natalie said, her eyebrows drawing together as if she was disappointed. Well, I’d been disappointed when she’d decided she wasn’t my best friend anymore. Life wasn’t fair like that.
I followed her up the stairs and into an apartment that was significantly cooler than the air outside. The place was clean and white and new, with stainless appliances and fake granite. It was every generic apartment. To be fair, I didn’t know what it looked like when she’d had it decorated. Now every available space was filled with stacks of carefully labeled boxes.
“I thought the movers were supposed to do that,” I said.
“I know, but I didn’t trust them. They can move the boxes to the truck.” That seemed like a waste of time and movers, but whatever. It wasn’t my circus. I was just the driver.
“So I don’t have anything in the house, but we can order something,” she said. I wished there were some music on or a TV blaring or something. The silence was getting to me.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, wondering where the hell to sit down. Even the couch was covered in boxes.
