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Despite our conflicting schedules, I’d made sure to walk Piper to class every morning this week, hating that I didn’t get to see her more, but with her volleyball season ramping up and hockey doubling down, I was lucky to see her at all some days.
Piper wrapped her arms around her middle and curled deeper into the door.
“You okay?” I reached over the center console and entwined her fingers in mine. We’d gotten up early in order to make the two-hour drive home.
“I think so. It’s just hard knowing they won’t be there anymore. I have a lot of good memories in that house.” She wiped her eyes. “I’m being silly. My parents are making the right decision.”
I squeezed her fingers. “Two things can be true. You can be sad and understand the reasoning.”
“So, are you going to explain to me what’s happening or what?” Jax piped up from the back, his voice lighter than the look on his face.
Piper stiffened, then looked back at him. “I should’ve told you.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Whatever it is, just tell me now.”
“My dad lost his job after Marcus…after he was gone. My parents were barely able to make ends meet. I worked all last year to help out but haven’t been able to send money home since going to school.”
“But you said you went on a gap year?” I watched in the rearview mirror as my friend struggled with what she was saying. He ran his hand through his hair. “You told me about all the places you went.”
“I told you all the places I wanted to go. Places that I thought would help heal me. But really, I just needed to be near you.”
Jax rolled his eyes. “Fucking buttering me up won’t get you out of this.”
“I’m so sorry, Jax. I just couldn’t tell anyone. We were all already carrying enough.” She didn’t bother apologizing to me since I had actively avoided her during that time.
Jax huffed, then smiled. “You can always stay at my place if you miss the neighborhood.”
None of us talked about the undercurrent of feeling like we were letting a part of Marcus go.
“You mean my place,” I said, trying to raise the mood.
“Do I though? Pretty sure I’d enjoy living with Piper,” Jax replied, and Piper chuckled beside me.
“Fuck off, dickwad.”
Piper choked on a laugh. “Oh, now you think my insults aren’t too immature?”
I smirked. “It’s a safe bet that if I teased you about something, I actually felt the complete opposite.”
She hit my arm, and Jax groaned. “No foreplay in front of the kids.”
The mood lightened for the rest of the drive until we pulled onto her street. There was a moving truck parked in front of her house, and all of our parents were standing in the driveway.
Piper’s mom smiled at us. She had the same blonde hair as Piper but cut into a chin-length bob.“Great, the cavalry is here. Boys, I’ve already got the heavy boxes marked in the living room. Piper, I left your room untouched in case there was anything you wanted to grab.”
Several hours later, I placed the last box from the living room into the moving truck and wiped my sweat from my face. Even in the winter weather, I was already overheating. Mrs. Adams was standing in her kitchen, looking through the window over the backyard, when I approached her.
“That’s it for down here. Where next?”
She cleared her throat before looking at me with red-rimmed eyes but no tears. I couldn’t imagine what this past year had been like for them. She gave me a knowing look and nodded toward the stairwell. “Go check on Piper.”
I took the stairs two at a time and headed straight for her bedroom but stopped when I heard her muffled cry from down the hall. Piper sat on Marcus’s bed, holding one of his championship trophies on her lap.
I sat beside her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder, pulling her weight against me. A sob broke free from her throat, and I rubbed her back gently. After several moments, her breathing calmed, and I lifted the trophy she was holding.
“I remember when we won this. He pulled off a beauty of a goal in the last five seconds of the game.” I stroked her arm and continued. “He gloated for weeks after. Wouldn’t shut up about it.”
She huffed out a laugh and took the trophy back, running her thumb over his name. “He could be pretty full of himself.”
