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He looks over at me before settling his eyes back on the road. “I told my mom.”
“How’d she take it?”
“Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. She was great. She wanted to call you immediately, but I told her to wait until morning. She said she was proud of me, and we had a long talk about what it means to be a good person and make good choices and be responsible and she told me…”
“Yeah?”
He doesn’t answer for a second because he’s too choked up. Katie runs a tight ship, and she expects a lot from Miles. Not a certain career or lifestyle, but being a good human.
“She told me she was incredibly proud of me for how I handled it, and that I did more than she ever would’ve asked of me.”
I reach over and give his arm a squeeze. My eyes are glassy. I swear one day I’m going to stop crying about this. “You saved me from something horrific, and I will never be able to thank you for that.”
“Don’t even pretend you wouldn’t do the same for me or the rest of us. We aren’t like normal best friends. What we have is so deep in us, it’s in our blood, in our souls.”
I give him a soft smile and nod. “Yeah, I think you’re right about that. I’m so grateful we have each other.”
“Me too. And I’m sure it’ll be my turn to go through something shitty eventually. It’s comforting to know I’ve got a small army behind me.” He gives me his charming grin.
I laugh a little and rest back against the seat. I needed this.
I turn on our playlist, and we spend an hour driving around and jamming out before he drops me back home.
I text my mom I’m back, and this time when I tumble into bed, I pass out right away.
Chapter nine
Burn a Hole in Me
Rae
Tappingonmywindowpulls me from a really good sleep. The best one I’ve had in a while. I look at the clock and see that it’s barely five. I slide the window up, assuming it’s Aaron. Instead, Joel climbs through.
I squint at him, then laugh. “Funny. We usually do this the other way around.”
He gives me a smile as he slides off his shoes and coat.
I flip the blankets up and he climbs in next to me.
“I know we don’t do this on weekdays and you usually come to my place, but this felt appropriate today.”
This is an occasional tradition for Joel and me, though usually I go to his house. Once, when we were twelve, my parents had to leave early in the morning for a business meeting and Sarah was gone for the night. I was freaked out about being alone, so Joel told me I could sneak over and sleep in his bed. Sure enough, I heard my parents leave the next morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I went to his house and slept for a few more hours. Then we woke up and drank hot cocoa in his room and talked.
Since then, whenever I couldn’t sleep on a Saturday or Sunday morning, I’d go over there and sleep a few more hours, then we’d sit together and talk about what was going on in our lives. Of course, eventually, we started drinking coffee instead of hot cocoa. It’s become less common as we’ve gotten older, so we wouldn’t freak out the people we were dating—not that I’ve dated anyone since Davey or that anything would ever happen with Joel, anyway, but still.
“Plus, I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been on edge, worried about you since your date with Matt. I’m so glad you finally let this out,” he says.
“Me too,” I say. Then I yawn.
“All right, let’s get some sleep.” He extends his arm and I snuggle in against him.
“Love ya, Joelskies.”
“Love you too, Rae Rae.”
An hour and a half later I wake up to Joel poking me as my alarm goes off. I sit up and rub my eyes. “Morning.”
“Morning, Rae Rae. How ya feeling?”
