Page 41 of The Interception
She’s already sitting on the front porch swing when I arrive, but stands when I approach. It’s probably pretty cozy wrapped inside that bundle of blanket she’s cocooned herself in, but that’s another thing I should not be thinking about. I’m here to talk about…good gosh…feelings.Not the ones I have for her, but the horrible guilt, earth-shattering sadness, and profound sense of emptiness I have whenever I think of my best friend.
“You must have sped the whole way.” Layne opens the front door and escorts me inside.
“Minimal traffic.” I shrug it off but I might have sped the whole way. I don’t even remember stopping for traffic lights, which is probably a bad sign.
“I already got a fire started and made us some hot cocoa. Unless you’d rather have coffee?” She pauses with her hand on the door leading to the back yard.
“Cocoa is fine. Thank you.” I’m glad I brought a coat, because it seems like there’s only one blanket, and she is thoroughly tangled up in it.
I step over the threshold into the yard and scan for a seat.
“On the other side of the fire,” she says. Following her around, I’m surprised to find how much she thought this through. She put a blanket on the ground along with a tray of hot cocoa and snacks—including s’mores supplies—and there are even a few pillows to lay back on.
“This is nice.” No other words come to mind other thanis this a date,but that seems like a really dumb thing to ask her right now. She’s offered to be a sounding board for me, someone I can talk to about Asher and maybe release some of the grief I’ve been keeping inside. Let’s face it, talking to the guys on the team about it is almost impossible. Leo would be great, I’m sure,but there’s something about crying in front of him that doesn’t appeal to me. And putting this on Sarah Beth is too much.
“You seemed to need a calm night. Not that your house isn’t calm but…you know.” Layne eases herself onto the blanket and pats the space beside her. “Sit, tell me all about Asher.”
Now that I’m here, my mind is only on her. She’s so beautiful in the firelight. The sparkle in her eyes is brighter, and for a moment I think this is what life could be like. Nights outside by a fire, talking to her, connecting with someone I’m not afraid to share deep and meaningful things with. Then I remember how many times she’s dodged my advances in the last twenty-four hours alone.
I sit with some space between us and an awkward tension settles. My elbows naturally settle on my knees and I fidget with my shoelaces while staring into the fire. Layne gives me time, patience, silent support that I don’t realize I’ve missed until it’s given to me. Then my old friend guilt fills in the empty spaces. Sarah Bethwouldgive me all of those things if my best friend hadn’t also been her husband.
“Ender,” Layne whispers, pulling my attention from the fire. She moves closer and wipes her fingers over my cheeks, drying tears that slipped free when I wasn’t paying attention.
“I’m sorry.” I wipe my face and clear my throat.
“I don’t want you to be sorry. I didn’t ask you to come here for a party. I asked you to come so you’d have a safe place to dothis.”She motions over me, I assume indicating she’d anticipated my crying or breaking down over losing the one person who knew me better than anyone else…and still liked me despite my bad attitude back when we were young.
“Asher was my first real friend. I wasn’t always this remarkably pleasant person, you know.”
Layne bites her lip but her laughter breaks free. “Stop. You’re perfectly likeable.”
“When I don’t put my foot in my mouth, maybe.”
She snuggles still closer and opens the blanket, inviting me into the cocoon of warmth she’s created. I can’t say no to an offer like that. With ease, I drag her up against my side and wrap us both inside. She eases back and we stare at the stars as little tendrils of smoke swirl their way up to the sky.
She settles her head on my chest, my arm around her shoulders, and hers around my waist. If it weren’t for the ache weighing on my chest, I might give it one last go with her. Try to test the waters and she if she’ll bite, but I don’t want to ruin this moment of pure, sweetfriendshipwith her.
“Tell me how you became friends,” she says.
“We got into a fistfight over a girl.”
Layne’s head pops up and her eyebrows raise. “A girl?”
“Yep. It was a love triangle at the ripe old age of eight, but after a scuffle, a busted nose, and detention for a week, we decided we liked each other better than either of us liked the girl. We became friends that week and never looked back.”
“That’s interesting.” She settles her head back on my chest. “Where does Sarah Beth find her way into it?”
“Oh, that happened way later. We were in high school by then. Asher and I were connected at the hip twenty-four-seven. We played football together and everything. Asher and Sarah Beth were friends, too, but never anything more than that. There was this guy who kept trailing her along. He stood her up a couple of times, and I tried to convince her to ditch him. She wouldn’t, so this one day Asher was picking up dinner for us from a local pizza joint. Sarah Beth was sitting in a booth crying, and when Asher found out what happened, he lost it.”
Layne tenses. “Am I allowed to ask what happened?”
“You can guess. The guy wanted more than my sister was willing to give him, and he dumped her.”
“Oh. Ew. What did Asher do?”
“Well, he wanted to call me, hunt the guy down, and give him a piece of his mind. Instead, he sat with my sister for two hours while she cried it out. She came home, forgot about the guy, and that was that.”
“That was that? What?” Her tone is skeptical, but I haven’t gotten to the best part yet.
