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I rubbed one hand over my face while I clenched the steering wheel with the other. I needed to get a grip. I also needed to step up my game with this Angel Tree Program and stop doing stupid shit to make her hate me even more than she already did.
Principal Bell was only pawning off his responsibility while properly punishing us. Little did he know, he did me a solid. Because it was our senior year and I wasn’t any closer to earning favor with Mia than I’d been nine years ago when we first moved to town and I tried to impress her with my boogie boarding skills.
School had yet to start, so I hadn’t met Mia yet. Little did I know the bright-eyed girl at the beach that day was one I’d meet weeks later in the halls of Lakeview Prep, only to earn a death glare. All I remembered was seeing her wade in the water, wearing a frilly polka dotted swimsuit, hair trailing down her back like a soft wave of strawberry lemonade. Blue eyes brighter than a clear sky. And the weird way my heart ached at the sight of her.
When she swam further out into the water, my pulse sped up. I grabbed her leg to get her attention. I’d seen some fish when I’d been diving off my board and I wanted to show her, impress her with my keen observation skills. But then I noticed the resulting swell of water from the giant boat coming at us, and I thought I’d impress her with my board instead.
I pushed off just as the wave crested toward us, doing my best to ride it in. But what I hadn’t taken into account was how short Mia was. She was mere yards away from where she could easily stand and, apparently, not the strongest swimmer.
I turned around, scanning the dark water for her, hoping she’d seen my impressive performance, but she was nowhere to be found. Seconds later, her tiny figure emerged in the shallow end of the water. Hair covered her face in giant, dripping tendrils that looked like the tentacles of an octopus, and when her eyes met mine, I laughed. Not because I was cruel or thought it was funny. I was so comfortable in the water, I never thought she might’ve been scared or hurt. Instead, I thought she was joking around, that any second, she, too, would start to laugh, and we’d become fast friends.
“You’re supposed to swim,” I said.
But instead of answering me back, laughing along, or praising me on my ability to maneuver a board, she stared at me, anger burning in those magnificent eyes. That was the precise moment I realized I’d screwed up and gotten on Mia Randall’s bad side.
My smile faded, my little boy heart clenching painfully in my chest. I stepped forward, ready to help her the rest of the way out of the water in the hopes of rectifying the situation and make amends, when Ethan swooped in with a cool drink and candy.
From that moment on, he became her savior and best friend, and I, her nemesis.
I pulled into my driveway and turned off the ignition, grabbing my swim bag and goggles from the passenger seat before I exited my Jeep. My gaze immediately caught on the familiar sight of Olivia’s convertible passing behind me, and I ducked with a prayer she hadn’t seen me.
Olivia had been hinting at me to ask her out for weeks when I’d rather have a hernia. Even if I wasn’t bound and determined to finally make Mia mine, I wouldn’t go out with her. High-maintenance, materialistic, self-absorbed just wasn’t my type.
Several yards down, she stopped, and I cursed under my breath, sure she’d double back around. But then she leaned toward the window and I realized she was talking to somebody across the road.
I shifted my body, peering out from the cover of my car, when I spotted a lone figure on the side of the street. One I recognized by her petite frame and her flaming hair.Mia.
All the nerves inside my chest sprang to life at the sight of her. I hadn’t expected her until later.
Narrowing my eyes, I watched as the two spoke for several minutes before Olivia finally pulled off and Mia watched her go with a shake of the head, then turned for my house.
Chapter 6
MIA
Normally,IdrovetoEthan’s house, but today, I decided to walk. The temperature was mild, nearly fifty-six degrees, so I knew my hoodie and jeans would suffice. It was only fifteen minutes by foot, and I desperately needed to clear my head, to shake off the aftereffects of my parent’s fighting.
I breathed in the fresh air, enjoying the simple sensation of filling my lungs until bursting, then releasing the pressure. It was the same feeling I got at home, like I was filling up-up-and-up until I thought I might explode.
I pulled the drawstrings of my hoodie tighter, taking in the Christmas lights, pine wreaths, and garland decorating the surrounding homes when it dawned on me—my parents hadn’t put up any decorations this year. We hadn’t even gotten our Christmas tree up yet, and while Christmas was still three weeks away, we usually put it up after Thanksgiving. What did that even mean, the absence of those things? Was it a result of how bad their relationship had gotten? A sign our family was falling apart? Or simply because Ella was gone?
I’d like to think it was the latter. That the moment Ella returned for Christmas break, we’d put on Christmas carols, decorate the house, and bake cookies, but the niggling voice in the back of my head said otherwise.
I glanced to my right at the sound of laughter and watched as a family—mother, father, and two daughters—piled out of a car and headed into a white-trimmed house. A stab of envy sunk inside my bones. I wanted desperately to be a part of a real family again. Happy. Carefree. Going places together and then returning home with nothing but joy and contentedness. But instead, I found myself constantly walking on eggshells, always trying to be perfect, to find something to make my parents happy again—to bring us back together. And look where that had gotten me. All my problems were building and rising to the surface, threating to spill out of me in one cataclysmic eruption, and today they finally had. When that ball hit me and I saw Carson laugh, I snapped.
I embarrassed myself in front of the class.
I almost got suspended.
I was unraveling. And I knew it.
I couldn’t keep up the pretense much longer, but I had to try. For them. For us. For myself, at least until I left for school in the fall.IfI left for school in the fall. I still hadn’t gotten any early acceptance letters yet. I checked the mail before I left the house—twice just to be sure.
With the way things had been going lately, it would be my luck to get rejected from all the colleges I applied to and be forced to stay right there in Lakeview. The only bright side to that terrifying scenario would be an extra year with Ethan. He was my best friend, my right hand, and so the only downside to going away to school was leaving him behind. Because he was a Lakeview lifer. He’d never leave.
The Brooks’ house came into view with their large, sunny yellow exterior, their huge white wraparound porch, and the wind chimes that seemed to endlessly tinkle a cheerful, melodic tune. Above the garage was a giant, brightly painted sign with a grand sailboat created by a local artist. It read, “Welcome to Port,” and that’s exactly how I felt as I approached—home, at bay.
I started to veer into their driveway when a sleek black car I recognized as Olivia’s slowed next to me and came to a stop. When Olivia poked her head out of the window, she smiled. “Hey, Mia.”
