“I’m not busy.”
“But you will be soon.”
I texted her back confirming before they could stop me. Nigel threw himself on the bed and tried to wrestle my cellphone out of my hands. And by try to, I mean he did it in three seconds flat.
“What the hell was that, Nigel?” I said. I didn’t realize he was so quick. Or so weirdly strong. Why had he made me carry that fax machine?
Nigel stood up on my bed and stared down at the phone. “It’s too late.” He handed the phone to Tanner.
Tanner shook his head. “This will not do. What restaurant will you be dining at?”
“I’m not telling you that.”
“Well, just make sure to let her down easily. Nigel, get off his bed.”
Nigel reluctantly climbed off my bed.
I wasn’t breaking up with Kennedy. I could picture saying yes to all of Tanner’s questions. But then I pictured Brooklyn’s face. And her voice echoed around in my head.“Liar.”
Homecoming - Chapter 16
Monday
Brooklyn
Kennedy seemed distracted all night.
When I’d first seen her this weekend, I thought she looked happy.
But now?
She’d barely touched her food.
She kept looking at her phone.
And she kept avoiding eye contact with me.
If there was one thing I knew about my best friend…this all meant something was very wrong. So once Jacob had finally settled down from talking about our zoo adventure, I wandered into Kennedy’s bedroom.
I didn’t wait to be invited. I just climbed in her bed beside her. She was lying down, but I stayed up, just pulling the blanket over my legs. “Talk to me, Kennedy. I can tell something is wrong.”
“I messed everything up.” Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. “And I didn’t even realize I was doing it. I just want to rewind time and do it all differently.”
I nodded. “I feel exactly the same way.”
She sniffed. “What did you mess up?”
“My whole life?” I sighed. “I don’t know. I keep wondering if there was possibly a way to undo all of it. To make different choices. For Miller to still be alive. But if I rewound too much and didn’t choose him, then I wouldn’t have had 15 perfect years. I wouldn’t have Jacob. I wouldn’t be me. Rewinding time would just cause more heartache. And you’d never even know how much you missed out on.”
“Yeah.” Kennedy sighed and just stared at me.
“This is where you share your thing.”
“I…can’t. I can’t say the words.”
“Since when have you not been able to tell me stuff?”
“For 16 years Brooklyn.”
