Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 20548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
I open Hannah’s door to leave.
“Do the dishes first,” Chunk says with a muffled voice.
Chunk?
I turn around, inspecting Hannah’s room, looking for where Chunk might be hiding. I walk over to the pile of covers on Hannah’s bed and pull them back. Chunk is lying with her head muffled by a pillow.
What in the hell? I point to Chunk while looking at Hannah. “She’s been here this whole time?”
“Yeah,” Hannah says with a careless shrug. “I thought you knew.”
I run my hands over my face. “Christ. Mom and Dad are gonna kill me.”
Chunk tosses the pillow aside and rolls over to look up at me. “I can keep a secret, you know. I’ve matured since you moved out.”
“You literally just told me ten minutes ago that no one can change in a span of three months.”
“That was ten minutes ago,” she says. “People can change in a span of three months
and ten minutes.”
There’s no way she’s going to be able to keep this quiet. I should have never said
anything to either of them. I throw the covers back over Chunk and make my way to the door. “If either of you tell them about this, I’ll never speak to you again.”
“That’s an incentive, not a threat,” Chunk says.
“Then I’ll move back home if you tell them!”
“My lips are sealed,” she says.
Chapter Two
It’s been a long time since I’ve knocked on Six’s bedroom window.
She and Sky share a dorm on campus now, but it’s on the fifth floor of a building and I can’t climb that high. I tried a few weeks ago because our dorm curfew is ten o’clock, but it was almost midnight and I really wanted to see Six. I got scared halfway up the first floor and climbed back down.
I glance at Sky’s bedroom window, but the lights are out. She and Holder still haven’t made it back from Austin yet. I look at Six’s window and her lights are out, too. I hope she’s home. She didn’t mention she was going anywhere.
But then again, I haven’t asked her. I never ask her anything. I hope Hannah is right and I can somehow fix whatever is weird between us.
I knock quietly on the windowpane, hoping she’s in her room. I immediately hear movement and then her curtains are pushed aside.
She looks like a fucking angel. Still.
I wave at her and she smiles at me. She actually looks happy to see me. That smile eliminates the majority of my nerves.
This always happens. I get paranoid and worried when I’m away from her, but when I’m with her, I can still see how she feels about me. Even when she looks sad.
Six opens the window and moves aside so I can climb inside. Her bedroom is dark, like she’s been sleeping, but it’s only nine o’clock.
I turn to face her and take her in. She’s wearing a t-shirt and pajama bottoms plastered with pizza slices. It reminds me that I haven’t eaten dinner today. I don’t even remember eating lunch. I haven’t had much of an appetite.
“What’s up?” she asks.
“Nothing.”
She stares at me for a moment and then gets this look in her eyes like she’s uncomfortable. She walks back to her bed and sits down. She pats the spot next to her, so I lie down and stare up at her.
“I lied,” I say. “It isn’t nothing.”
Six sighs heavily and then scoots down so that she’s lying down next to me. She doesn’t turn toward me, though. She stares up at the ceiling. “I know.”
“You do?”
She nods. “I was expecting you to show up tonight.”
I’m suddenly regretting coming over here and confronting it, because confronting it means action will be taken, and it might not be an action I want. Shit. Now I’m scared. “Are you breaking up with me?” I ask her.
She rolls her head and looks at me sincerely. “No, Daniel. Don’t be a dumbass. Why? Are you breaking up with me?”
“No,” I say immediately. Convincingly. “Dumbass.”
She laughs a little. That’s a good sign, but she looks away again, back to the ceiling, and offers up nothing else.
“Why are things weird between us?” I ask her.
“I don’t know,” she answers quietly. “I’ve been wondering the same thing.”
“What am I doing wrong?”
“I don’t know.”
“But I am doing something wrong?” I ask.
“I don’t know.”
“What can I do to be better?”
“I don’t even know if you can be any better.”
“Well, if I’m not the issue, what is?”
“Everything else? Nothing else? I don’t know.”
“This conversation isn’t going anywhere,” I say.
She smiles. “Yeah, we’ve never been the best at deep conversation.”
We aren’t. We’re shallow. Both of us. Our conversations are mostly shallow. We like to keep things fun and light because everything under the surface is so damn heavy. “That doesn’t seem to be working out for us too well, so tell me what you’re thinking. Let’s dig a little and figure this out.”