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I smelled the drink and it brought back so many memories. It instantly yanked me back to those summer days when anything had seemed possible, and I had never been so happy to be surrounded by cheerleaders.
“You go first,” she said, looking into the can as if something was going to jump out and bite her.
“We used to suck these things down. This isn’t a big deal.” I took a sip and nearly choked. “Oh god, it’s terrible. Why did we like this?”
I tried another sip, just to see if it was better than the first one. It was worse.
“It can’t be that bad,” she said, and then I relished the look of horror on her face as she sipped and then swallowed the noxious liquid. She put her hand over her mouth and then set the can down. “That was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever put in my mouth. How can our memories be so faulty?”
“No idea.” I grabbed a bag of the crunchy cheese curls and hoped that they wouldn’t disappoint me. I crunched into one, and it was just as good as I remembered. One for two.
“Okay, eat these. They’re good,” I said, pushing the bag toward her.
“I’m scared,” she said, but she picked up the bag. After a few moments, she opened it up and nibbled the end of one piece. Pondering, she thought about it before shoving the whole thing in her mouth.
“Much better,” was her verdict.
We sat and crunched and the sound echoed through the empty gym.
“I can’t believe we’re leaving in two days. It’s so weird,” I said. I still had to do laundry and pack. Oops. Do as I say, not as I do.
“It’s going to be awesome. They’ll do good. I mean, neither of us is winning.”
I gave her a look.
“We both know it’s true,” she said.
“Fine. But I still want to beat you. I don’t care if we come second from last. As long as you’re last.”
Echo shook her head back and forth slowly and then finished her chips and pulled a wipe from her purse to clean her fingers like some kind of princess. I just licked mine off like a normal person, but then she passed me a wipe.
I snatched it from her fingers and she scooted closer to me, moving the cans of discarded energy drinks. One moment there was space between us, and the next she was right there.
“I thought about revisiting one more thing from our past, if you’re up for it.”
There was no reading between the lines needed here.
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” I could hear Dom’s voice in my head, telling me to put a stop to this, to push away from her and go home.
I didn’t listen.
I leaned closer to Echo, and the combination of the energy drink and the crunchy snacks on her breath was weirdly arousing. Maybe it was just Echo.Shewas arousing.
“What are we doing?” I whispered, staring deep into her eyes. On the surface, they were brown, but they were so much more than that. Dark caramel and honey and chocolate. All delicious things swirled together.
“I don’t know, what are we doing?” she said, her breath whispering across my lips. I was millimeters away from kissing her and I wanted to. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to do a whole lot of other things with her. Things we’d done in the past, things that had rocked my world and opened new doors and that I still thought about to this day.
Would it still be the same, kissing Echo? Would her lips still set my blood on fire and make me forget how to take a breath? Or would the kiss fall flat? I didn’t know which would be worse, honestly.
I didn’t want to want her, but I did. The wanting had built and built, and tonight I didn’t think I had the ability to say no.
“What are you waiting for, Kiri?” I had to close my eyes and think for a moment. I inhaled and reminded myself that we were in the Corsica gym and, if things escalated at all, we would not want to be on a hard gym floor, and there was no way I would sully the cheer mats and still be able to look my squad in the eyes.
I stood up on shaky legs and held my hand out.
“Come on.”
She didn’t ask where we were going as we gathered our things up, shut the lights off, and locked the doors. Echo followed me to my car and got in when I unlocked the door, tossing her bag in the back.
