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The moment, as fleeting as it was, came and went in an instant, bubble burst by a boy and girl coming out of the double doors. The girl with a long skirt opened up a yellow umbrella, but the boy, decked out in black, merely bent his head against the rain. They walked past us, leaving Josh and me alone once more, but the tension had walked away with them. I merely pressed as close to Josh as I could, giving a nod. “Ready.”
“You’ll turn left at the next stoplight. It’s the fourth house on the right.”
Josh made a soft sound. “You and Rachel both live so close to the school. No wonder you bike every day.”
I tapped my sneakers together. “I have to find some way to sneak some exercise in.”
“We didn’t really get much of a chance to talk,” he said, flipping on his blinker and slowing for the yellow light. Rachel would’ve gunned the acceleration for the yellow, and I’d braced myself for Josh to do the same, but was pleasantly surprised when he slowed.Good driver, I thought appreciatively.Good sign. “Here I was, hoping for a long drive where I could get to know you better.”
“You’re very honest,” I told him, dancing my fingers along my backpack. “Get to know me…like in a friend way?”
Josh nodded. “I never thought it’d be hard to make friends in a school this size. I figured I’d meetsomeone, you know? Except everyone already has their friend groups, and it’s like they’re not open to adding one more.”
Instantly, I understood. There was no hope of infiltrating the Top Tier as a new senior, but even in other cliques, everyone would’ve already closed ranks around those they knew best. Rachel, Maisie, and I were probably one of those groups. Even including Maisie into Rachel and I’s duo had been tough, and that was just freshmen year. But now, senior year, when everyone already had a tight bond with their friend group? “I could see how that’d be hard. Brentwood is known for its cliques.”
“Which is probably good for Brentwood Babble.” He cast me a sidelong glance as the light flicked green. “Makes it easier to choose which group to talk about.”
“I guess.”
Josh found my house quickly and easily, pulling into the slanted driveway and pausing a few inches from the garage door. His windshield wipers made a harsh suction noise as they swiped along the glass; now that we weren’t moving, they didn’t need to be on such a high setting. “Do you want to do something?” Josh asked suddenly, planting his elbow on the center console between us. “We could go see a movie. Or we could watch a movie at my place. My mom is home,” he rushed to add, cheeks pinking. “So, I’m not, like, inviting you over for anything weird.”
“Weird?” I raised a playful eyebrow. “Weird how?”
That pink flooded into a beet red. “Like…uh, never mind.”
I leaned into the seat with a small smirk, grabbing my backpack straps. It was fun to tease him, to see how flushed he could get. “I should check on Rachel. She’s been home sick all day.”
The windshield wipers made one last squeaking shriek before he turned them off. “Maybe some other time?”
My phone chimed in my backpack’s side pocket, and though my fingers itched to snatch it up, I forced them into stillness. It wasn’t the quick staccato vibration that I’d programmed for Babble, but the chime I used for a text. “Will your mom be home tomorrow? We could watch a movie then.”
“Should be. She’s normally home this time of day.”
I popped the passenger’s side door open and slid out of the low seat, turning to duck my head into the cab. “Tomorrow, then?”
Josh reversed out of my driveway with both hands clutching ten and two on the steering wheel. I hesitated by the edge of the sidewalk, taking the drizzling rain like a champ, and pulled out my cell phone.
Rachel
KISS HIM!!!
I looked up, finding the little peeping Tom in her upstairs bedroom window, her face practically plastered against the glass. Even from here, I could see her livid frown and the thumbs-down she gave me.
“There’s such a thing as privacy,” I said as I let myself into Rachel’s bedroom, dropping my damp backpack on the floor. She left her blinds thrown wide, not trying to hide the evidence of her spying at all, even though she’d jumped back into bed. As I stepped over the threshold, I could smell the peppermint scent of her heating pad. “What are you, my paparazzi?”
“I need photos to print out for your wedding,” she said with an exaggerated wink, and then fell deeper onto her blankets. “Ugh, I feel like I’m dying. For a girl who never wants kids, this whole monthly thing feels like a sick joke.”
“You’re lucky your mom lets you stay home.”
“Yeah,lucky. Where’s Reed? I thought he’d drop you off.”
I gave her the rundown of how the whole carpooling situation came to be, where Reed said he was going, and the possibility of tomorrow. Thelikelihoodof tomorrow. She seemed excited at the prospect of another outing, but wanted to dive in and rehash the first.
“Sooo, yesterday. At Wallflower. What’d you two talk about?”
My brain suddenly emptied, like someone pressed the delete button on the memory of yesterday. All pathways to Wallflower and the conversations we had there came up as dead ends. “I…can’t really remember.”
“You can’t remember? You were there for two hours, weren’t you?”
