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Then he’s gone, the doors swinging shut behind him. I slide into the booth opposite Zoey, my gaze veering toward the sidewalk as Lucas appears. My arms tingling where his fingers wrapped around them, I watch him until he disappears from view.
Zoey’s voice startles me. “That was interesting.”
Flushing, I take a sip of the iced tea she was kind enough to order for me. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, really?”
I slump against the cushion. My willpower is no match for her steady, discerning eyes. “Fine. What do you remember about Jeremy, Lucas, and me from high school?”
She frowns thoughtfully. “Not a ton. I remember you guys were popular. That you and Jeremy were prom king and queen senior year.” She shrugs. “I was in my own world back then.”
I smile softly. “Yeah, I think all of us were, in one way or another. My world… well, for a long time it was the three of us. Lucas and I met when he moved next door right before fifth grade. I’d really wanted a girl my age to move in, so I basically hated him from the moment I saw him.”
She smirks. “That didn’t last.”
I shrug. “He wore me down.”
The reality was I never stood a chance of resisting him. I was done for the first night we officially met—a week after he moved in—when I found him wandering in my backyard. It was late; my parents were asleep. I’d come outside to enjoy the cool air after spending most of the evening painting. Before I even saw Lucas, I heard shouting coming from the other side of the fence, then glass breaking. Eventually, a door slammed, and a woman’s soft cries faded.
“Hey, uh… Can I hang here for a bit?”
“Yes, totally.”
“Okay, cool. I’m Lucas.”
“Hi. I’m Celeste.”
“And then he became best friends with Jeremy?” asks Zoey.
I nod. “In a nutshell. The three of us were inseparable until senior year.”
Zoey hums, her brows pinched. “I’m having a weird memory from sophomore year of a blowup doll hidden in someone’s locker and the three of you getting detention. Was that real?” At my wince and nod, she laughs. “Celeste Miller! I can’t believe I didn’t know what a troublemaker you were!”
I laugh halfheartedly. “Yeah. We kept most of our pranks on the down-low. For the record, it was Lucas’s locker I hid the blowup doll in, but he tried to take the blame and ended up getting us all in trouble.”
So many pranks. So many embarrassing moments that I thought I’d never live through. So much revenge.
So much laughter.
Covering Lucas’s cell phone in an entire roll of tape when he left it at my house, then wrapping it in plastic and throwing it on his front lawn. Taping an air horn behind his bedroom door, perfectly aligned with the doorknob. Googly eyes… everywhere. And one of my all-time favorites—wet cotton balls all over his new car on a snowy night. He’d been pissed about that one for days.
As we got older, the pranks fell off. But we were still misfits, sneaking out in the middle of the night for joyrides in Lucas’s Mustang, stealing cans of cheap beer from the fridge in Jeremy’s garage and taking them to the lake, where we sipped and talked for hours under the stars.
“So what happened?” asks Zoey.
Luckily, the server chooses that moment to approach and take our orders. My relief is short-lived. Once we’re alone again, Zoey stares at me until I wilt.
“Something happened at Camp Wild Lake the summer before senior year.”
Zoey hears the waver in my voice and leans forward. “Hey, I’m sorry. We don’t have to talk about it.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m always on you to share your deepest, darkest secrets with me, so what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t do the same?” My gaze falling from hers, I rub a finger through the condensation on my glass. “Long story short, I threw myself at Lucas. He rejected me. Then Jeremy told me he had feelings for me.”
Zoey sits back abruptly. “Oh, shit.”
I smile weakly. “It was a confusing time for sure. But then I fell in love with Jeremy, and the rest is history.”
“And you and Lucas…?” She leaves the question dangling, knowing there’s more to the story.
