AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Your friend arrived.” She points at the elevator. There might be a bit of a language barrier here.
“I . . . What? Where?”
She smiles. “Your room.”
My heart pounds as I sprint up the stairs. Is there really someone else in my room? Only one person could have arrived tonight from the United States.
But he’s not
He wouldn’t
We haven’t even talked in
I said some things that I really regret, and he probably
I look down at my trembling hand, feeling like my DNA helices are unwinding. I grab the handle and open the door, just to get it over with before an aneurysm annihilates my brain.
There is someone sprawled on my freshly made bed.
My heart stops.
Then restarts, a mix of relief and something else.
Then derails again.
“Mal, this room is a vibe,” a voice tells me from the bed. “You’re really coming up in life, bitch. And all because I pushed you to embrace the important cause of gluten sensitivity.”
I close my eyes. Take a deep breath. Open them again.
And whimper, more than ask:
“Easton?”
Her hair has grown a lot since August, well past her shoulders. It looks darker and glossier than back in the summer, after the sun bleached her tips and the seawater frizzed them. Perhaps it should surprise me, but it doesn’t.
Thank you, Instagram stalking.
“Why . . . What are you doing here?”
She rolls on the bed, then props herself up on her elbows. “Sabrina texted me.”
“Sabrina?”
She nods. “Yea tall? Blond? Pubescent?Aggressivelysullen?”
“I know who Sabrina— ” I shake my head. “Shetextedyou?”
“I made the mistake of giving her my number before leaving New Jersey. During the week of all those rides? I blame you for it.”
“You’ve been corresponding with my fifteen- year- old sister?”
“No. I’ve been leaving your fifteen- year- old sister on read when she sent TikToks of people dancing, about which I care nothing, or TikToks about roller derby, about which I care, astonishingly, even less. But a couple of weeks ago she texted me about you. So I replied.”
I’m slowly recovering from the near stroke. Easton is here. On my side of the bed, without even taking off her shoes. We haven’t talked in ages. Millennia.
It’s possible that I’m annoyed.
I cross my arms over my chest. “Shouldn’t you be in Colorado?”
