Page 105 of To Love or to Lose
There’s a sudden noise from inside the house, making Briar jump and look back into the living room in shock.Neither I nor Eloise say anything about it, but I can tell Gracie is curious as to what caused the ruckus, even if she says nothing.
“Um…” Briar quickly turns toward where we stand on the porch. “Is it okay if she still stays at your place tonight?”
By the panic on her face, I can infer she has someone inside that she doesn't want Gracie to see.
“Yeah, of course.” Eloise is the one who answers.
“Thank you so much.” She tells us before reaching out to hug Gracie. “I’ll come pick you up tomorrow morning. Okay?”
All Gracie does is nod and pull away before she turns and makes her way back toward Winnie’s car.
As soon as her little sister’s back is to us, Briar lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank you guys so much, you have no idea.”
I wasn’t planning on asking any further questions, since Briar seems overly apprehensive, but all I can do is wonder what type of secret she’s attempting to keep. Still, I keep to myself.
“Don’t worry about it,” I tell her.
Briar shuts the front door after Eloise and I say our quick goodbyes.
As we make our way back down the steps of the porch, Eloise looks at me and says, “So, who do you think she’s fucking?”
“Huh?”
“Come on, you have to admit that she had someone in there.”
“Well obviously, but why would we have an idea who?”
“Aren’t you tutoring her? Plus, you’re student body president,” Eloise asks rhetorically. “Shouldn’t you know the people you’re governing?”
I laugh, “Sorry, but my first action of office was not having everyone complete a census of every person they’ve hooked up with, and we don’t talk about anything other than math when I tutor her.”
“Well, maybe that would have been a good campaign strategy.” Eloise is the first to know I didn’t need a campaign strategy. I was running with Logan Callaghan—that was enough as is.
We are the first pair to ever win Student Body President and Vice President as freshman, and the only pair who's ever served all four years.
“You're ridiculous,” I respond, pushing her shoulder. “Get in the car.”
Regardless of what Eloise and I think of Briar, it’s not our place to pry into her life. Whatever is going on in her house is not for us to know.
When we get in the car—me in the passenger seat and Eloise sitting on the center compartment—I look in the backseat to see the three younger girls all sleeping, leaning on each other.
“Don’t they remind you of someone?” Winnie asks while she watches them in the rearview mirror.
I know exactly what she means.
“Who?” Eloise questions, looking confused as she glances in the backseat.
I answer quietly before Winnie does. “Us.”
So young and unknowing, drifting off to sleep in the backseat of a car without a care in the world.
When we were younger, it was easy for our problems to fade away like they did for these three tonight. That’s exactly how it felt with Eloise and Winnie when we were their age; I knew I could fall asleep on them at any moment, and they would let me.
Someone else, someone older, someone wiser, was always around to save us.
Now, we have each other to rely on when we mess up. The clean-up isn’t as easy as it used to be.
We grew up.
