Page 29 of Broken Ties (Rixon High 4)

“I may have overreacted a little bit.”

“A little bit? You threw down with Zara—”

“Aaron!”

“Fine.” I held up my hands in surrender. “Friends?” I asked, needing her to say yes. Poppy was vital to me, like breathing air or drinking water.

She’d been such a big part of my life for so long, I felt off-kilter without her around. But lines had been blurred and waters muddied. We weren’t little kids anymore. We had dreams and desires and needs.

“Friends.” She repeated, a strange expression passing over her face. “Sure.”

“Jeez, don’t sound too enthusiastic.” I chuckled, but it came out strangled. Things between us never used to be this difficult.

“No, I am. I just—” Her cell phone vibrated, startling her.

“You should get that,” I said.

Poppy read the text message, her eyes giving nothing away.

“Hannigan?”

“This isn’t weird for you?” she asked. “Us talking about the boy I’m… dating.”

“Why would it be weird? We always knew we’d grow up one day and start dating… other people, I mean.” I shrugged, ignoring the giant fucking knot in my stomach.

“Right, yeah.” She didn’t meet my eyes.

“Maybe we should all double date? Me and Eli, you and Zara.”

Poppy peeked over at me, and I nodded. “Cool, yeah. Whatever you want.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

Tension crackled around us. I’d brought her out here to talk, to try and clear the air between us. But this was a fucking disaster. A double date with Eli and Zara, that was the last thing on my mind.

I didn’t say that though.

I didn’t say anything.

Because what was there to say?

For the first time in my life, I didn’t know how to fix this. To fix us.

And it hit me that maybe I hadn’t only lost my shot at Pittsburgh.

Maybe I’d lost my best friend too.

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