Page 20 of Between Never and Forever
She kicks some dirt on my bare feet. When she speaks again, her voice is softer, and I know this is real.
“I can’t stay here anymore, Levi. I’m—I’m gonnaloseitif I don’t get out. I’d stay if I could. I swear. But I can’t. I can’t, Levi. So, I just wanted to say bye...and...and thank you for, ya know, bein’ my friend and stuff.”
“Savannah...”
Her name leaves my mouth and trails off. There’s no use trying to talk her out of it. She’s so stubborn. She won’t listen to me.
And anyway, she’s probably right.
“Where are you going to go?” I ask instead, and she shrugs.
“I got a few ideas.” She chews on her lip for a second. “I can’t tell you. I don’t want you to tell your momma.”
I just jerk a nod, and she kicks more dirt on my feet.
“Don’t forget about me,” she whispers, and my eyes sting.
“I could never.”
I mean it. I could never forget about her.
I look her over as she stares at the ground. Her hair is loose and wild like usual, blowing in her face with even the slightest breeze, and she’s wearing a pair of jeans and a shirt that are a little too big. They look like boy’s clothes.
At first, I wonder where she got them, and then...
“Are those my clothes?” I blurt out, and she meets my eyes with a smirk.
“I’d say I was borrowin’ ‘em but you probably won’t get ‘em back.”
“How’d you—” I shake my head. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
She laughs, and then crouches down quickly and starts digging around inside the front pouch of her backpack.
“I almost forgot.”
She stands back up and holds something out to me. When I don’t reach for it, she rolls her eyes and grabs my hand, pressing something cold and rigid into my palm. When I turn my hand over to inspect it, my jaw drops and my eyes go wide.
It’s the key to my bike lock.
The bike that was stolen from my house in the middle of the night.
I look up at her and cock my head in question. She bites her lip and lowers her eyes, almost looking shy, and my throat burns.
“It’s behind the shed at The Pit,” she says to the ground.
“You found my bike?”
She scrunches her nose and kicks more dirt.
“I’m sorta the one who stole it.”
“What? Why?”
She shrugs.
“The bus was boring, and your momma wouldn’t let you ride it unless you didn’t have your bike.”
My lips twitch into a grin.
