AllFreeNovel
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Just checking in
Emma
Call me when you get here! I’m down by the water
Tom
Got a drinks for you right here fucklng gorgeus night
Where you at?
Hope yur coming soon
Jude
Can you please respond to the redheaded amoeba, he’s texting me now
Tom
Hurry up baeutiful Im waitng
Jude
If he sends me a dick pic by mistake, I will never forgive you
Emma
Sorry, I have confiscated Tom’s phone. And his keys.
Hope you’re on your way :)
I start the engine, wondering if I’m okay to drive. I’m not dizzy, exactly. I just feel…strange.
The feeling persists all the way back to the house. Blackleaf looms in the darkness, shaggy as a beast, the roof humped like a back with all its peeling paint and hanging shutters. Ernie’s workshop stands behind the house, almost lost within the overgrown garden.
I turn off the engine and sit in the dark car. Without the rumbling noise, a heavy peace settles in my ears once more. I roll down the windows, feeling the cool air on my bare skin. I can smell the pumpkins swelling in the damp earth.
Jude comes out the back door of the house with a bunch of books tucked under his arm. He crosses the yard, slips through the garden, and disappears inside the work shed.
When he reemerges a moment later, his hands are empty.
“Hey!” I call across the yard. “You’re supposed to be cleaning things out of the shed, not carrying them in.”
He jumps like a cat. “Don’tdothat!”
“Serves you right, you sneak up on me all the time.”
It only takes him a moment to recover his cool. “Finished with your indentured servitude?”
“Yup.”
I don’t tell him that I didn’t actually work on Dane’s fence today. I haven’t told him about the kiss, either. Usually, I can’t keep a secret from Jude to save my life, but with Dane it’s different. I can’t explain what’s happening between us because I don’t understand it myself.
Jude can tell something’s fishy. “What happened to you? You look weird.”
I shrug. The movement feels bizarre, like I just invented it.
“I’m gonna change clothes.” I hear the words coming out of my mouth like somebody else is saying them. “You coming to this bonfire party?”
