his own money, saving for it since he was little. “Your chariot awaits.”
Nodding, I followed him and he opened the passenger door. It creaked in protest. He joked about it needing to be oiled, like he always did. Then he closed my door and rounded the hood.
Inside the cab, he set the radio dial on a country-rock station. On any other day, I’d have teased him about his taste in music, which was so different from mine. But today I stayed within the boundaries of my own thoughts. I stared out the window, trying to remember math formulas.
Too soon, the drive was over, and we arrived at the middle school.
Once inside the building, we separated. Chad squeezed my hand before he went to check in, since he was taking the SAT too. We entered the cafeteria shoulder to shoulder, and he gave me an encouraging smile. Then he took a seat at his designated table, and I found my seat at another table.
“Good luck.” I mouthed the words across the distance separating us.
When the proctor told us to begin, I tore open my booklet, using the pointed end of my number-two pencil. Then the real torture began. The words on the examination and the bubbles on the Scantron answer form blurred before my weary eyes. The math section was impossible, and the reading and writing section was only slightly better.
I developed a terrible headache during the last forty-five minutes, and my bladder ached, about to burst from all the coffee I’d consumed.
When time was called, I trudged to the front along with everyone else and turned in my materials. Then I rushed out of the cafeteria, found a restroom, and took care of business. When I returned to the foyer, Chad was leaning against a trophy case, waiting for me. He took one look at my face and knew how the test had gone for me.
“Didn’t go well, huh?” he asked.
“I didn’t even finish the math section.”
“Oh, Lace.” His expression turned sad for the second time that morning.
“I know. I’m screwed.”
Even friendship couldn’t make this fail better, and then it got worse. Outside, it was raining. A steady mist just heavy enough to be annoying, and it blocked out the sun.
“Lace,” a familiar voice called as I struggled to get the hood on my slicker up.
“Bryan.” My eyes widened as I watched him approach. “What do you want?” I frowned, though of course he looked delicious in a black leather jacket, black tee, and jeans, with the mist glistening like magical dust in his brown hair.
“How’d the test go?” His brows drew together as Chad moved beside me, placing his hand on my shoulder.
I reached for and squeezed my current friend’s fingers before refocusing on my former childhood one.
“Terrible,” I said bitterly. “It went terrible. But you didn’t come here for that. You came because War told you to. Right?”
“War didn’t have anything to do with it. I’m here for you,” he said, glancing at Chad before refocusing on me. “Can you and I go somewhere to talk? Just the two of us.”
My heart wanted to leap out of my chest and cling to his. How many times had I dreamed of him saying something like this? But dreams were more of a shot in the dark for me than hope, and I didn’t trust Bryan’s motives anymore, knowing full well his current friendship with War superseded our past one.
“If you need to say something,” I said, lifting my chin, blinking as a fat droplet smacked me on my nose, “just go ahead and say it right here.”
“All right.” Bryan’s eyes narrowed, as gray like the impenetrable clouds above us, and as green as the wet grass on the lawn. “In the dressing room. The question you asked me. I didn’t tell you the truth. I have wondered about it.”
His gaze dipped to my mouth, and my lips tingled. I suddenly felt every dewy drop of rain.
“I’ve wondered about it a lot,” he said softly. “I wondered about it so much last night that I couldn’t sleep. But I’ve got no right to wonder. I think you know that.”
“Um . . .” My mind blanked, and my legs trembled as the solid ground seemed to shift beneath me.
“Should I go and leave you two alone?” Chad asked.
“That would be great,” Bryan said, but he didn’t take his eyes off me. His gaze unwavering, he asked me again, “Now will you go somewhere so we can talk?”
Nodding, I whispered, “Yes.”
Lace
It felt