Page 16 of The Pass
“Thanks for walking me home.”
“Thanks for coming to see me. Maybe tomorrow we can go out, like actually leave the house and do something?” My hands are a little sweaty and I shove them in my pockets.
“Can’t. We have a team dinner thing and Saturday I promised Emily we’d go to the football party. You could come with us if you want.”
I like her friends, but I’d far prefer to spend the night with just her. Maybe a movie or dinner, or the bar. “Okay, yeah, whatever you want.”
Her wide smile makes me forget to be disappointed. “I’ll text you when I know what everyone’s doing.”
Tipping back on my heels, that disappointment creeps back in knowing that we’re not going to be able to hang out for a couple of days. And I really hate this weird place we’re in. Most of the time I don’t notice it because I’m too busy enjoying her company, but when we say goodbye there’s always this beat of awkwardness. When can I see her again? Should I kiss her? Have we hung out enough times that she trusts me?
Sydney smiles tentatively, hand on the doorknob. A war wages in my head.
Kiss her.
Don’t freak her out.
Fucking kiss her already.
You’ll know when the time is right.
It feels pretty fucking right.
While I’m still debating, Sydney makes the decision for me. She steps forward, kisses me on the cheek so quickly I almost miss it, and then throws open her door and goes inside. “’Night, Tanner.”
How did I get friend zoned by a girl that by her own words had been dying to meet me for an entire year? I think it might have been this moment. I should have taken her out to a party or to dinner. I should have kissed her. Literally anything would have been better than what I did, which was nothing.
6
Sydney
Present day- two years later
“Tanner?”I call as I walk through the front door. My voice echoes in the big, quiet space. I move through to the back of the house to see if he’s outside and then backtrack to go upstairs. Everyone else has already gone home for summer break, and if it weren’t for Tanner’s car out front and the text he sent me five minutes ago, I’d think he was gone too.
As I ascend the stairs, I finally hear him. Above the sound of the shower, he sings. The words and tempo don’t match any song I know, but he keeps right on belting it out. The bathroom door is cracked open and steam seeps out.
“It sounds like you’re drowning a cat in there,” I say, standing along the wall so I don’t accidentally get an eyeful. If there’s anything I’ve learned being friends with Tanner over the last two years, it’s that he’s unabashedly proud of his body and not afraid who sees it. Modesty? What’s that?
The water stops, and I hear him push the shower curtain open. “There’s a pussy joke in there somewhere.”
Rolling my eyes, but smiling all the same, I step back when his footsteps approach. “Are you decent?”
“Always.”
“Is your dick covered?”
He chuckles and moves past me. He’s dripping water all over the hallway, but he does have a towel wrapped around his waist.
I follow him into his room and sit on his bed. He steps into his closet, tosses the towel out onto the floor, and when he reappears, he has on a pair of shorts.
He drops beside me on the mattress. “How was your meeting with the trainer?”
I fall onto my back with a dramatic sigh. “Awful. She squashed any hope that I can play this summer. Seriously, I’m fine.” I lift my arm and rotate until I feel the pinch in my shoulder. Okay, fine is a stretch but the tournament in Brazil isn’t for another three weeks. I’ll be fine by then. Mostly fine. I really wanted to spend my summer by the beach.
“Sorry, babe. You don’t want to take any chances before senior year, though. Better to rest it and be ready in the fall.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumble. That’s almost exactly what the doctor said. It doesn’t make missing out on a summer of traveling and playing volleyball suck any less. I turn onto my side to face Tanner. “When are you leaving?”
