to me. “When’s your next game? Maybe we can come? I’ve never even seen your high school. It’ll be so much fun.”
“Tomorrow night,” I said.
James ran his fingers through his hair. A nervous tic. “I have a lot of papers to grade tomorrow.”
“That’s okay,” Penny said. “I’ve been meaning to get together with the girls anyway. I’ll ask them to go with me. I bet Bee and Daphne would love to see Empire High.”
She was right - I was sure Mason and Rob’s wives would love to see where we used to go to high school. And honestly, that sounded better than having the guys there. None of my friends had stepped foot back in that school after graduation besides me. I think they were terrified of the ghosts of their past. And they’d all moved on. I was the only one who kept going back. I was the one who was stuck there.
“This is going to be so much fun,” Penny said. She was smiling for real again. And I was happy it was because of me.
“Great. I’ll see you tomorrow, Penny.” I winked at her.
James frowned at me.
But Penny’s smile grew. And that was all I cared about.
She waved goodbye and I left before James could pull me to the side and tell me to fuck off. It wasn’t like Penny and I were going on a date. I’d be on the field the whole time and she’d be with our friends. There’d be zero funny business going on.
No, I didn’t kiss Penny. But I still felt a million times better than I had after practice. Penny was the breath of fresh air I needed.
When I was in the hall my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw the name flash across my screen. Mr. Pruitt. My blood ran cold. Why the hell wouldn’t he leave me alone? I clicked out of the text without reading it. I knew exactly what it would say. He sent me the same text every few months for years. Telling me we needed to talk. That it was important.
But nothing that came out of that man’s mouth was important to me.
My heart started beating the same way it had when I thought I’d seen Brooklyn walking around the streets of the city. None of my ghosts were leaving me alone tonight.
I needed another drink. And to talk to someone who actually understood. Someone who hadn’t frozen me out. I fired off a text and headed to the closest bar.
Chapter 4
Thursday
“Hey man,” Tanner said and slid into the stool next to mine. “What’s up?”
I could always count on Tanner. No matter what he had going on, if I said I needed to talk he’d show up within 10 minutes. Honestly, I didn’t know how he managed it with the ridiculous traffic in this city. It was like he could teleport or something.
I didn’t respond. I just downed my glass and slammed it on the bar top.
Tanner grimaced. “That bad, huh?”
I nodded. My parents had forced me to go to therapy after Brooklyn died. And I did that whole thing for years. But it didn’t help. I just needed someone I trusted to talk to. Back and forth. Not someone staring at me taking notes. My best friends growing up didn’t want to talk about Brooklyn. Or anything high school. I got it. I was pretty sure they felt as guilty as me. But they’d all moved on. And I…couldn’t. Tanner was my only friend who seemed to care to listen. And he’d become my therapist of sorts. He never seemed to mind me talking about the past. He liked talking about his too.
I slid my phone over to Tanner.
He looked down at the text from Mr. Pruitt. “Again? What a dick. It’s like every time you start to move on, he pulls you back into this shit.”
It was kind of Tanner to say, because we both knew I was never even close to moving on.
“Maybe you should just answer him and get it over with,” Tanner said as he ordered us another round.
“I have nothing to say to him.”
“I know. But he clearly has something to say to you.” He handed me my phone back.
I looked down at the text. I could practically hear Mr. Pruitt’s voice: “Matthew Caldwell, it’s Richard Pruitt. We need to talk. It’s urgent. Please stop by tomorrow at 7 pm. The staff is expecting you.” He even put his address.