AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Theo stopped and put his hand on my shoulder. “I’m happy to do it. I just want you to be happy.”
I looked up at him, and our eyes met. His were a blueish green with a rim of brown around the pupil. Not bad eyes, but different from Tuck’s piercing gray. I remember what Tuck said about guys only doing things for two reasons. I had always felt like I was giving Theo something in return, an alibi for himself, but the way he squeezed my shoulder made me wonder if there was another reason he was willing to lie for me.
I moved from his grip slyly. “I am happy, thanks.”
“I know you probably wish you could take him to the deb ball, but I want you to know, I’m really happy I’m going with you.” He ran his fingers through his hair nervously, and I felt a pang of guilt. Maybe hewasjust a really nice guy underneath his preppy, frat boy exterior.
I hadn’t been the most welcoming to Theo after everything he had done for me. He was not the person I’d thought he had been, and I had been treating him as though he were a thorn in my side, someone I was being forced to have encounters with instead of someone who was acting as a friend to me.
“You’re a greatboyfriend, Theo.” I winked, putting my hands up in quotations when I said boyfriend. “And I’m happy to be going with you.”
It wasn’t exactly the whole truth, but a little white lie was okay every once in a while, or so I figured. Truthfully, I would rather not be going at all, and if I had to go, I would want to be escorted by Tuck, but I didn’t need to drill that into Theo.
“Thanks for saying that,” he said with a smile. “Even if you are lying.”
“Hey!” I nudged him playfully. “I don’t lie!” Then realizing the irony of that statement, we both laughed. “Well, I mean, I don’t usually lie.”
“Listen,” he began, “why don’t we tell your parents we are going to go catch a movie and hang out and then you can go meet up with your boyfriend, and I can go meet up with Payton and ride his dirt bikes? My mother doesn’t approve and thinks it’s ‘much too dangerous.’” He mocked his mother’s voice and I laughed. “Just another reason this arrangement is perfect.”
“That sounds great to me. Just don’t break anything. I’m not sure your tux would fit over a cast. And I’m also not sure how we could explain you breaking your arm on a date.”
“Deal,” he replied. He held out his arm, and I linked mine in his as we practically skipped back up to the house.
I finally felt like I could trust Theo, and the truth was, he was turning out to be a great friend after all.
FORTY-SEVEN
TUCK
Time was ticking.Every moment counted with Lettie. I couldn’t be close enough to her. I couldn’t trace the freckles on her body or smell the vanilla of her lotion too many times. I needed to memorize her, to carry every single detail about her with me so that when I felt like I would die without her, I could remember.
We took a canoe out onto Hickory Creek with a picnic dinner, and Lettie was reading between my legs as we floated down the water. It was more shallow than usual, given that we hadn’t had much rain in several weeks, so the water was moving slowly. After a few minutes, Lettie put down her book and turned to face me.
“I’ve been thinking about something.”
“Okay, what’s that?”
“I’m going to leave after the deb ball,” she said plainly.
I raised one of my eyebrows. “What?”
“I can’t stay there, Tuck. I don’t belong there. I belong with you. And since I can’t be with you, I need to be somewhere that feels like you.”
My mind was spinning. “But you can’t just leave. You still need to finish your senior year. You can’t just drop out of school!”
Lettie chuckled. “Oh my gosh. Tuck! I’m not a total idiot! I’m not going to drop out. I’ll finish at Aveline High. I’ll be eighteen next month, and there’s no reason I can’t transfer. People do it all the time.”
“Okay, but where will you stay?” I asked.
“Evelyn said I can stay at Green Gables until I figure something out.”
I realized that Lettie had an answer for everything. She appeared confident. She’d thought about this, planned for this, and yet, she had never mentioned it before.
“I’ll have everything ready for you when you get back. I’ll be here, waiting for you.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “What if I get deployed?”
She shrugged. “Then I’ll wait longer.”
