Page 52 of Fly Back to Me
“As we eat ice cream for lunch,” she deadpans.
The breeze tickles my hair, and my eyes greet the puffy, graysky. “On a chilly, cloudy day.”
“Why are we like this?”
“I don’t know. Boredom has consumed us, clearly.” I slurp the trickling vanilla lines from my knuckle.
“I expected better from you,” Lauren teases before licking the chocolate mound on her cone.
“Oh, look!” I gasp.
Bursts of bright pastels pop into my vision, and I scurry the few feet to the corner brick building. I halt in front of the butterfly mural, an explosion of colors embedded in the large wingspan on the burnt orange canvas. A paisley design weaves within the vibrant palette, blending this sort of kaleidoscope effect that knocks my eyes around.
I slip the vanilla lump between my lips, sucking on the rich flavor. My eyes travel the span of the painted insect, but the only image I can conjure is me and Cade tucked under the spreading tree.
To fly where I’m meant to.
You know, if the universe wanted Cade and I to be together this much, was it drunk off its ass when it decided for him to have a girlfriend? Who created these demented details? Seriously, there are way,wayshittier people in the world who deserve this kind of vicious torture.
“Okay, this calls for a photo op,” I utter, finally spinning around.
Lauren rolls her eyes on a grunt, but I retrieve my phone from my belt bag anyway. “You’re so unapologetically as basic as your damn ice cream,” she says, snatching my phone from me.
“I was gonna take a photo of you next, chill,” I grumble playfully, retreating back to the brick.
Her chin tilts up dramatically. “Oh, yes. I live for photo receipts. Please,pleasetake my picture so I can post it to social media for hundreds of likes.”
“Okay, can you not?” I suspend my palms out. “It’s nothundredsof likes.” Then I twist my head to either side, simply catching the naked branches of the trees lining the sidewalk. “And no one is coming our way right now, so can you put your cynicism aside?”
“This post better make you viral,” she retorts before slurping the top of her cone.
I grin when my back is flush against the rugged brick, planting the bottom of my sneaker on the wall. My hand holding the cone rests against the belt of my high-rise jeans, shoving the flap of my plaid shacket out of the way.
“Okay, wait. Hold up,” I request. I mildly angle my chin up so my free fingertips can dance around the ends of my high ponytail. “Go, go, go.”
Lauren drags the phone a few inches in different directions, and then the mini modeling session ends.
I’m wearing the widest grin when I shoot off the wall to dash up to her. “Okay, your turn, your turn!”
I rip the phone from her palm, and she waves a hand at me with crumpled brows. “No way.”
I bite into the waffle crust of my cone as I sift through the photos Lauren just snapped. But when she walks up to the mural, it only takes a few seconds for me to capture a candid of her.
My phone is still raised in my palm when she whirls around, her mouth dropping as she says, “You bitch.”
I shrug, dipping my attention to the screen with a devious smirk. “You’ll forgive me once you see how awesome it looks. Also, I know exactly what my caption is going to be for this post.”
My thumb swipes through the photos, and Lauren’s auburn locks creep into my periphery. “Is it ‘I love Cade forever’? But spelled with the number 4?” she asks at my side.
“Funny,” I state. “More like, ‘As long as I get my social mediapost in.’”
“What?” She scowls, rejecting the idea. “Also, don’t post my picture.”
“It was the first thing he said to me,” I answer casually. “And too late. You looked too good.”
“In all seriousness, Liv, you can’t pursue a guy with a girlfriend,” Lauren warns.
I sigh, dropping my phone in my belt bag. “I’mnot.” My eyes greet her brown ones, and I know they’re absent of conviction. “But I can be his friend.”
