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“He’s—yes. He hasn’t gotten out of bed yet.” I’d said it to hopefully prevent her from going inside, for whatever reason she wanted to, but when her eyes widened, I realized I wasn’t helping my case. “I mean, he—he’s—I wasn’t—”
“I didn’t see anything,” Mrs. Manning said, nodding very quickly, causing her low ponytail to bounce. “I truly didn’t.”
“Nothing happened,” I insisted, desperate for her to believe me. “I swear, Mrs. Manning. I was—”
She raised her hands halfway to her head, almost as if she was going to cover her ears. “I didn’t see anything. I’m going to make breakfast.”
I could’ve disappeared into the wallpaper at that moment and would’ve considered it a blessing. My face was on fire as Mrs. Manning backed toward the staircase, obviously thinking a thousand things at once, and they were all wrong. I had to tell her.
But hang on, were they all wrong? What if she was thinking I stayed here all night in Reed’s bed?Thatwasn’t wrong. Except it was also a truth that Rachel could never, ever find out. “Mrs. Manning, wait, I can—”
“Ava?”
I stopped halfway down the staircase, but I had a clear view of the Manning’s front door and how it was swung wide, letting in a glare of sunlight. Fully highlighting my best friend standing over the threshold, a pink duffle bag in one hand.
Rachel frowned at me, no doubt rapid-fire looking me over just as her mom had. “What are you doing here so early? Why are you in your pjs?”
Over the course of my life, I imagined in all the ways and places I would die. I didn’t quite anticipate it being in the middle of the Manning’s staircase with my best friend no doubt bashing my head in with her duffle. Because the excuses I’d been set to give to her mom? Gone. Poof. My brain emptied like someone pressed the handle down on a toilet.
“She stayed the night last night,” a voice sounded behind me, sleepy and low. My hand on the banister spasmed along with my heart as I turned around. Though Reed was clearly awake, the sleep slung to his frame, from his slow blinks to his mused hair. His expression spoke nothing of the night before, like it’d never happened. “Her and her mom had a fight last night, so she crashed in your room.”
They say the best lies are masked with some truth, but it was almost scary how easily the lie fell from Reed’s mouth. It made me wonder if he’d ever lied in front of me before and I hadn’t known him well enough to realize. He didn’t look at me as he spoke, as if I weren’t even there.
Rachel readjusted her duffle, her expression cloudy. If anyone were to catch him in a lie, it’d be his twin. “How do you know?”
“I’m the one who unlocked the deadbolt.” Reed brushed past me and moved down the stairs without turning back, not glancing my way once. He swiped up hisSuper Mario Brosmug from where he’d left it the night before. “Shut the door. You’re letting out the AC.”
With that, Reed disappeared down the hallway that led to the kitchen, leaving the two of us staring at each other. Leaving me to have heart palpitations all on my own.
“You should’ve texted me if you and your mom fought,” Rachel said to me, kicking the door shut. “I could’ve come home.”
“You couldn’t just leave the kid you were babysitting.”
Rachel didn’t say anything as she shifted her duffle, straightening out its strap.
Last night, that’d been the sole reason for fleeing to her house. In a moment of need, I’d sought out the comfort of my best friend. I’d been fully prepared to tell her everything, to let her hold me while I fell apart. She would be as devastated as me about selling the house, but now the words wouldn’t come. After briefly opening the box last night, I couldn’t bring myself to do it again. Couldn’t risk falling into a hole I couldn’t get out of. I guess there was a daytime version of me, too.
“It wasn’t anything major,” I told Rachel, coming down a step on numb legs. “I just needed space.”
“Well, you know my bedroom door is always open. Even when I’m not in it.” She pointed at me. “But you better not have cleaned my room because then I’ll have to kick you in the shins for destroying my organized chaos.”
I hadn’t touched a single thing in her room; I hadn’t even gone into it.
“Ava!” Reed called from down the hallway, causing me to jump. “Mom wants to know if you’re staying for breakfast!”
“I—I can’t,” I told Rachel, already reaching for the front door’s knob. I needed to leave now before I said something wrong. Before my expression gave me away. Before I actually made eye contact with Reed. “I’m going to have breakfast with Dad. I’ll see you later?”
“Do you need a ride?” she called after me, but I was already hurrying down her front porch. “Wait! Where are your shoes?”
I didn’t even hesitate to cross the street, and didn’t turn back to see if she watched me leave. It was a one-time thing, last night, but I needed the space to sort it through in my thoughts, file it away, and then it’d be fine. I wouldn’t think of how safe I felt in Reed’s arms. I wouldn’t think of them at all.
* * *
“Did you know about Mom selling the house?”
It was the first question I asked Dad—demanded, really—as soon as he sat down in the booth across from me, groaning right along with the plastic as he settled in. It wasn’t “where have you been” despite him being a half hour late to meeting me for breakfast, nor had it been “hey, Dad, haven’t seen you in forever.” I wasn’t going to waste time beating around the bush.
Dad, though, seemed to not have heard me, livid confusion furrowing his already wrinkled brow. “What on earth have you done to your hair?”
