The Baby Pact (Babies and Billions #5) - Holly Rayner Page 0,8
things he’d dumped out of his desk drawers and stuffing them into a duffel bag. Looking over, she could see that the bag was already filled with clothes.
“Listen,” she said urgently. “There must be something we can do. I can’t just let you go to Philadelphia. We can figure out a solution together so that you can stay.”
“No,” he said. “We can’t.”
“Why are you being so stubborn about this? Do you want to go?”
He looked directly at her for the first time, and Rhea was stunned by the emotion on his face.
“Come on, Rhea. You know I don’t want to go. This school is my home. This is where I’ve spent the best years of my life.”
“Then I don’t understand why you’re giving up so easily,” she said. “Why won’t you fight this?”
“Because it won’t do any good,” he said. “I’m not like you. The world isn’t built for people like me. I’m used to being pushed out. I always knew it would be a fight for me to go to school here. I can’t be surprised now that it turns out I’m losing that fight.”
“You can’t leave,” she whispered. “You’re my best friend.”
And I thought we might have something even bigger than that.
If he left, he would be taking that away with him too.
Zach sat down on the bed beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him, grateful for the familiar comfort of his body against hers.
“It’s not so bad,” he said. “It’s only Philadelphia. That’s a two-hour drive from here. We can see each other whenever we want to.”
“It won’t be the same,” she said. “It took me five minutes to walk from my door to yours tonight.”
“No,” he agreed. “It won’t be like that. But you know I’m not going to let you go just because I’m living in a different city. We’ll still be friends. We’ll just have to work a little harder to see each other.”
She sniffled and nodded.
“And there’s video chat,” he went on. “We can call each other as much as we want to.”
“You hate video chat,” she pointed out.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “But I like you.”
She looked up at him. “You really don’t think this is going to be the end of our friendship?”
“Of course not!” he said. “Why would it? Come on, Rhea. You’re the best friend I’ve made since I’ve been here. I’m not going to let a stupid little two-hour car ride come between us.”
“You don’t have a car,” she pointed out.
“You do. And I can always rent one. My living expenses are going to go way down, so I won’t be so cash poor.”
Rhea sighed. “I’m sorry if I was insensitive,” she said. “You’re right. I don’t really know what it’s like for you, as much as I wish I did. I’ve always known that there wasn’t any trouble I could get myself into that my parents couldn’t buy me out of, and that’s a huge privilege.”
He shook his head. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you the way I did. I know you were just trying to help because you don’t want me to go. I don’t want to go either. If I thought there was some way I could stay, I would do it.”
“I’m going to keep thinking about it,” she vowed. “Until the moment you have to go. I’m not giving up on keeping you here, Zach.”
“Okay,” he said. But Rhea could tell he was just humoring her.
They sat in silence for several long minutes.
“Do you still want to watch the show?” she asked him.
He hesitated. “To be honest, I should probably put in some time packing.”
“You’re leaving at the end of the semester?”
He nodded.
“Do you want me to help you pack?”
It would kill her to do it. She didn’t think she could stand to put his things into bags and boxes, knowing that the next time she saw them, it would be on a trip to Philadelphia.
That is, if I ever see them again.
“You don’t have to do that,” Zach said.
“I don’t mind.”
He laughed. There was no humor in the sound.
“Yeah, you do,” he said. “I can tell. Go on home. Process this, and we’ll get together tomorrow for TV night. Okay?”
“Do you promise?” she asked, feeling pathetic.
“I promise.” He pulled her in for a quick hug, then released her.
Rhea made her way back out into the night air feeling positively shell shocked.
Is he really leaving?
It didn’t seem possible. Zach had become such