Page 26 of Paper Hearts

“What?” Ender laughs. “Who touched your boob in a closet?”

“A boy named Toby. We got locked in a janitors closet in the sixth grade. He tried to touch my boob.”

Ender makes a ticking sound with his tongue. “If I ever meet this Toby kid, I’ll knock his teeth in.”

I smile and I’m just about to be brave and ask if he wants to touch my boob, but then he sighs into the phone when I hear a loud knock on the other end of the line. “I have to go.”

“Okay.” I blow out a breath and my shoulders sag forward, depressed our time is over.

“Hads?”

“Yeah?”

“I can’t fuckin’ wait to see you again.”

My cheeks burn again and all I can think about is how every time he swears, I want his dirty mouth suffocating my breath.

Summer can’t come soon enough.

10

WHEN I TRUSTED HIM

“You are not packing that many bags, Becca,” my mom tells her as we load up the back of her van with our bags. “That’s ridiculous. You wear your bikini half the time. What’s with all this?”

Becca whines, tries to convince Mom she needs all of it, but doesn’t succeed.

I’m frustrated she’s taking so long. If it hadn’t been for freaking Becca and her need to pack ten swimsuits she couldn’t find, we’d be halfway to the lake.

For paybacks, I take the bag she wants most, the one with her toiletries, and hide it in the garage before we pull out of the driveway.

Once we’re on the road, I text Ender and Arya and tell them I’m on my way. They’ve already been there for a few days, and I hate that I’m the last to arrive. Even Roman’s there already, but thankfully, not Kamila. Arya says Ender told her she couldn’t come with them.

This summer it’s only Mom, Becca, Harper, and me. Brenna and Hazel are both either at college or running wild, who really knows.

My dad is staying back in Savannah to finish up a few jobs and says he’d be out in a week. My mom, annoyed with him over something she refuses to tell us about, lets us leave a week early without him.

“Are you guys fighting?” I ask her on the way there, attempting to get her talking.

“When are they not fighting?” Becca mocks, her condescending tone earning her a glare from my mom in the rearview mirror. I used to think Becca was like Hazel in a lot of ways—you know, the good child—but lately she’s taken a different turn and is a pain in everyone’s ass with her snide comments and snotty attitude. My mom says it’s because she’s eighteen now and upset that her boyfriend dumped her when he left for college. Apparently this means she’s nasty to everyone.

I, on the other hand, don’t like it when Mom is upset. With my attention on her, I shuffle a few playlists I made for the drive. For the third time on the drive, she ignores Dad’s call and lets it go to voicemail.

“What’s wrong? Why are you avoiding his calls?”

Mom sighs, her right hand slipping from the steering wheel onto my knee. “Your daddy is a tough man to get along with, sweetie. Sometimes I need some space. That’s all.”

Space? Huh. I know they have their differences, and I know they love each other, but I also understand more than they lead on. I hear their late-night fights about putting Hazel through college and constantly bailing Brenna out of her bad decisions. That puts a strain on any marriage.

Conversation is left at that, and I decide if she’s not worrying about it, then I won’t either. After all, with my dad not around, I might have more freedom at the lake.

* * *

Two bathroom breaks,three stops for food and one because Becca throws up, it’s five hours and twenty-eight minutes later to be exact when we arrive at the lake. I drop all my crap on the bed in my room and rush from the house to the dock to see Ender, Walker, Roman, Myles and Arya already out there on the Jet Skis.

Ender smiles. “Hadi!” he yells, throwing both hands up in the air and letting go of the Jet Ski.

“Hey!” I grin foolishly, because I think maybe he missed me as much as I missed him. He’s wearing that damn cowboy hat again and I hope he takes it off and lets me wear it later.

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