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“So, lunch?” I ask, too hopeful.
Rory tips her head, humor instantly dying from her face. “Don’t push it.”
twenty-one
Finn
Thetruthis,I’mnot sure why I’m doing this when I could have just as easily stayed home and eaten here. That’s what Ishouldhave done.
Perfection may have been the one thing ingrained in my blood since I was born but success doesn’t come without sacrifice. I may like muffins, but that doesn’t mean I need them added to my waistline.
The routine I keep myself on as far as a diet for basketball would object, but I’ve always hated those voices in my head.
I yank up my car keys. Today I’ll make an exception.
I should’ve stayed home.
For starters, the sour cream currently running down the center of my shirt makes it appear as if I came on myself. Second, the smallOof Hailey’s mouth is currently parted and tells me she wasn’t expecting to see me. That makes two of us.
My nostrils flare as I slowly lift my head from the fresh stain and over to her.
She goes to reach for me, the move automatic, as if she isn’t thinking, then at the last possible second, her hand stalls, and blindly she reaches for a handful of napkins instead. Shoving them against the cotton of my tee as she shifts around me.
Hailey had been friendlier to the worker handing her her tacos from the truck than she had me. At leastthatperson got a thank-you.
I didn’t get a word and she got smashed tacos shells. It seems fair to me.
I order my own food, wait, and head over tothetable with my own tray minutes later. Of all the other brightly colored tables, she chose this one when she could’ve as easily gone with the red, orange, or yellow.
Karma must have it out for me today…
Swinging my leg over the bright-turquoise table, I plant my ass like I own the seat. Nostalgic memories flood my senses, but I wash those down in the same breath, understanding the person across from me is not the same person I knew before.
I take a bite of the crunchy shell, savoring the taste of seasoned beef and cheese, and completely ignore how her chewing has slowed before it stops altogether.
She may be quiet now, but she jumped like a feral cat, bouncing at least a foot from her seat after the plastic of my tray slammed into the wood of the table.
Hailey has set down the crumbs of her smashed food, but as much as I hate to admit it, I know her, and I understand what the weight of her sigh means. She wants to talk about things that are still personal, too fresh, even if years have passed.
The girl is trying to be responsible and have courage, but I can tell she doesn’t want to share…that’s fine because, at the moment, I don’t want to listen. I want to eat.
The word tastes pungent on my tongue.Responsible.Ugh!
I cut both her breath and whatever else was coming along with it off. “You gonna finish that?” I ask, eyeing what’s left on her tray.
The question is a test, and she fails.
The sound of her tray as it scrapes the wood is heinous. The noise is as dreadful as the thing that’s just gripped, squeezing at my heart. Hailey never would’ve shared. She is the only person I’ve ever met that was as selfish as me when it came to protecting her food.
My eyelids grow heavy at the sight. She really has changed.
I don’t touch her less-than-half-eaten meal.
“You’re sure?”
She shrugs before grabbing at the bench below and squeezing her wrists between her thighs as her shoulders shift inward. Rocking, her face is everywhere but in my direction.
Again, she fails, and again I am left more disappointed than I should be.
