Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 21429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
“Oh God…” Skylar buries her head in her hands and slumps over in the grass with a heavy sigh.
“I mean—my mom tells me you’re into sculpting and clay,” I say. “The house I was renting in LA had plenty of room for a studio and space out back. We could set you up with space to do your work, it could be great—”
“Walker!” Sky blurts out, sitting back up. “That sounds amazing, okay? Amazing! But what the hell are we going to tell our parents?”
“Yeah, that’s the issue…”
“That I’m just going out there with you for a while to see LA and then I decide to stay?” she suggests. “And then instead of getting my own place, I just stay with you indefinitely?”
I shrug and laugh. “Hey, that’s good actually.”
“But then when one of them comes to visit?”
“Yeah, not so good…”
Sky throws herself onto me, and I cradle her in my arms, running my fingers through her wet hair.
“Why does this have to be happening so fast?” she asks.
“Hey, ask your dad,” I reply. “It’s his fault.”
Sky sighs. “It’s always the dad’s fault.”
“I’ll talk to him about it—”
“No,” she says quickly. “Don’t do that. He’ll kill you. Let me do it.”
“You’re gonna talk to him?” I ask, feeling my heart rate go up a notch. “Do you have a plan for that, or…?”
“No,” she replies. “But I’ll think of one.”
8
Skylar
“Los Angeles? That’s awesome!” Mary grins as she sets my hot cocoa and peach cobbler down on the counter. After swimming with Walker and a very awkward dinner back home with the parents, I came here to the diner to see her during her shift to get her advice.
“Come on, be serious,” I groan. “Two days after he comes here, and my dad is sending him back? How is this awesome?”
“Because!” she replies. “This means that when you’re there, I get to come visit you and we get to go look at all the big celebrity houses! Maybe I’ll even run into Zack Efron! You think he’d add me to his body count?”
I pick up my plate and feign like I’m going to throw it in her face. She yelps and ducks behind the counter, laughing before surfacing again.
“Can you be serious for two seconds?”
“Okay, I seriously think it’s a good idea,” she says. “You get to be with Walker—by the way, I think it’s awesome you two went through with it, and I need full details later.”
“Of course.”
“You get to get out of here, be with him, and get out on your own,” she continues. “I mean—maybe I’ll even apply to some colleges out there.”
“College?” I ask. “You?”
“Bitch, what’s that mean!?” she asks, spraying a strip of whipped cream at me. I yelp and fend her off with one hand.
“Hey! I just meant you never seemed interested before, that’s all!”
“Yeah, well, I also am not interested in serving drunks and divorcees hamburgers and pies for the rest of my life either,” she replies. “Thought I might go get my degree.”
I try not to look so shocked that it comes off rude, but I really am quite flabbergasted. Mary has always teased the girls I went to school with about their college prep classes and SAT tutoring and how much pressure they placed on themselves to get into a top university, saying she was so happy to be done with high school and would never step foot in a classroom again, and now here she is talking about applying herself.
“Mary, I’m…I think that would be great.” I smile. “Any idea what your major would be?”
“Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” she laughs. “I haven’t even filled out the application yet.”
“Yeah, and I haven’t even thought about how to broach the subject to my parents…” I groan, taking a bite of my peach cobbler. “Do you have any idea what my dad’s reaction will be? I mean, it’s not like I ever even tried to date in high school, but if I had, he definitely would have been one of those guys who sat my date down and had ‘a talk’ with him about making sure I got home before curfew and maybe even would have run a background check on him.”
“Well, he already knows Walker’s a good guy.” Mary shrugs, forking a bit of my cobbler. “So you’ve got that going for you.”
“True,” I laugh. “Now it’s just the whole step-brother thing working against me.”
“What about Kathleen?” she asks.
“What about her?”
“Have you thought about talking to her about it?”
And just like that, it clicks.
Kathleen already confronted me once about Walker, and she seemed pretty understanding—even though I completely denied knowing what she was talking about. If there’s anyone to go to about this, it’s not my dad, it’s her.
“You know what? You should go to college, Mary.” I smile, setting my fork down. “Because you are a genius.”