“Oh!” Savannah says, bolting upright, as if suddenly remembering that introductions need to be made. “This is our cousin. Blake. And Blake, this is Mila Harding.” Savannah puts a slight emphasis on my last name, or maybe I’m imagining it.
I look up and catch the gaze of the driver in the rearview mirror. He’s watching me, brown eyes narrowed slightly, shining from the spotlights encircling the ranch. Then he twists in his seat and looks at me directly.
“Hi, Mila,” he says coolly. “Your first tailgate party, huh?”
“Yeah. They don’t really happen in LA.”
“Of course they don’t,” he deadpans, then turns back to face the road.
Unlike his strawberry blond relatives, Blake has dark features. His hair is a warm brown and naturally tousled, his eyes shadowed beneath thick brows. His face is angular, his jawline sharp, and he seems much more aloof than his friendly cousins.
I swallow and lean back against the seat, suddenly aware of my heartbeat. I can feel my skin tingling. Off to a tailgate party with strangers. . . But this is what normal teenagers in Fairview do, right? Except, as my parents so often remind me, I’mnota normal teenager.
“Let’s head over and show Mila some reality then,” Blake says, and he bumps up the music a little and sets off down the quiet roads away from the ranch. There’s something slightly off with his tone. Mocking. Something that if I wasn’t so nervous I’d ask him to explain.
Instead, I let it slide.
The music choice isn’t really what I’d expect, because instead of R&B we’re listening to acoustic country. Not exactly the kind of tunes to get us into the party vibe, but it’s chill and relaxing as the sky continues to darken outside the tinted windows. The sunset has fully disappeared now.
Myles and Blake talk between the two of them, so Savannah turns to me for our own conversation in the backseat. However, every once in a while, my eyes wander to the boys in the front, observing Blake’s hands on the wheel, Myles’s more animated gestures and their unfamiliar profiles as they turn toward each other while speaking.
“Are you excited?” Savannah asks, tucking her hair behind her ear. That’s how I notice the funky earrings she’s wearing – dangling horses.
“Nervous,” I admit.
“You’ll maybe remember some people from our elementary class,” she says in an effort to put me at ease. Considering I barely remembered Savannah, mybest friend, I highly doubt I’ll remember any of the others in our class. “There’ll be some people from the grade below, and some from above, like Myles and Blake.”
“How many people will be there?”
Savannah smirks, then rolls her eyes. “We’re in Fairview. Like, twenty of us.”
“Oh,” I say, staring down at my Nikes.
A small crowd is evenworse.A small crowd means it’s harder to blend into the background. A small crowd means everyone will most likely sit together and be part of one big easy conversation. Until right now, I was imagining plenty of parked trucks, dance music blaring through the darkened countryside, and lots of different people milling around and doing their own thing. Instead, I realize this “party” is actually more of a casual get-together. Maybe huge parties don’t exist in a town as small as Fairview.
I glance back over at Savannah. “Wait. Are we going to a sports game or something? Isn’t that what tailgate parties are for?” It’s summer, so there’s no football. Maybe we’re going to a baseball game?
“That’s the tradition,” Savannah says, “but they’re fun to host on your own, anyway. You’ll love it.”
I hope so. I admit, I like the idea of trying new things on my own without my parents as my entourage, because I’ve never had freedom like this before. Of course, I’ve had some amazing experiences, like walking the red carpet of the Oscars, but maybe it’s time to branch out and do things for myself. Maybe this little break away from home will be good for me. A chance to be my own person without Ruben ordering me around, a chance to figure out who exactly Mila Harding is. And sheisn’tjust Everett Harding’s daughter. She has to be more than that.
Doesn’t she?
I stare out of the window, watching Fairview unravel around me. There’s a whole lot ofnothing.Just the open road and the trees that circle around us with the occasional flicker of light from an oncoming car. With the quiet musings of Myles and Blake and the lull of music, it almost feels as though we’re off on a road trip. It’s also kind of eerie, all this emptiness. There’s barely any other cars, only the occasional house, and definitely no other people.
I’m not sure I like how alone Fairview makes me feel, so disconnected from the rest of the world. But maybe, I tell myself, that disconnect will turn out to be a good thing.
After five minutes or so, I begin to spot streetlights which can only signify that we’ve left the deserted countryside behind and are entering the Fairview metropolitan area – or at least whatever sort of downtown area a town like Fairview might have.
“Do you remember anything about living here?” Myles enquires.
Blake catches my eye in that rearview mirror again, awaiting my answer. It makes me wonder just how much Savannah has filled him in on. . . But given that Blake has just picked me up from the famous Harding Estate, I’m sure he can figure out for himself who I am.
I sit up a little and squint outside. We’re heading down a long stretch of road that’s home to enough familiar establishments to reassure me that Fairview, Tennessee is more than just some town out in the sticks. There’s the usual McDonald’s, a Dunkin’ Donuts – oh, thank God, because I’maddictedto their hazelnut iced coffees – and a Walmart, from what I see in the dark. A street sign lets me know that this is Fairview Boulevard. It’s a bit livelier, with more traffic and a few pedestrians on the sidewalks, but still – I remember none of it. I’m so used to LA now that small-town life tends to feel too restricted, though I’m sure it has its perks.
“Not really,” I finally answer, shaking my head. “I left when I was super young.”
“You probably think we’re just a bunch of country bumpkins,” Savannah says with a chuckle. “But I swear it’s not that bad here. We have high-speed internet these days and everything.”
