can’t believe Rocky was in that shooting,” she said, clearly changing the subject as she tossed her keys on the kitchen table and walked into the kitchen. She started pulling out things like flour and sugar from the cupboard and talking to herself. “I can’t imagine how scary that must have been,” she added but kept her focus on counting and measuring the ingredients she had started lining up. She started making a list for whatever was missing from her recipe, but mostly, she was trying to avoid talking to me.
“Me neither,” I agreed before silently willing her to stop whatever it was that she was doing and pay attention to me. Forget beating around the bush, I wanted to get right to the heart of the matter and clear the air, which, I had to admit, was very unlike me.
“Sunny,” I said her name, and she dropped what was in her hand. “Can we please talk about what you think you saw earlier? With Hayley?”
Sunny’s body flinched. It was subtle, but I noticed.
“I don’t know what I saw.” She tried to sound nonchalant and unaffected, but she was upset.
“You saw two people talking. Well, you saw Satan talking and me trying to get her to shut the hell up and leave me alone,” I said, hoping she believed me.
She swallowed noticeably, her eyes avoiding mine, and I hated whenever she did that. It was one of her tells, and that was how I knew she was more upset than she was letting on.
“What are you thinking? Just tell me, so I can fix it.”
“I’m mad at you,” she said instantly, and I swallowed hard, feeling a little uncomfortable with the direct outburst.
“I know. I’m sorry I didn’t call you last night.” I wasn’t sure exactly what to tell her about that. Did she really need to know how big of a basket case I was and that I had been wallowing in self-pity all night before forcing myself to fall asleep with the help of some melatonin?
“Why didn’t you?”
“I, um …” I hesitated, my mind spinning. “I had a talk with Coach yesterday that upset me, and I was in a bad headspace for the rest of the day,” I answered honestly and held my breath, waiting for her response. Maybe she would realize I wasn’t worth all this trouble and cut her losses.
“Mac.” Sunny walked from the kitchen and toward where I stood. “It’s okay if you have a bad day. But just give me a heads-up. It’s not that hard to send me a text, saying you just need to be alone or whatever.” She sounded frustrated. “Just freaking communicate with me. I can’t take the silent treatment.”
“It goes against my nature,” I spat out before realizing what I’d even said. It was the truth though even if I’d truly never put the pieces together before now. “I’m just used to keeping everything to myself.”
Sunny closed the distance between us and wrapped me in her arms. She held me tight, hugging me, and I had to force my hand to stay on her lower back and not drop to her ass.
As she pulled away, her face looked pained. “I want you to tell me the hard stuff. That’s what I’m here for.”
“You’re going to have to remind me of that. Probably pretty often.” I tried to lighten the mood, but the smile she gave me didn’t reach her eyes.
“I’m mad about that text you sent me too.” Her eyes pulled together, and I’d almost forgotten all about that.
I pulled my baseball hat off and scratched at my head. “I freaked out when I heard you were with her. Or near her. I don’t trust Hayley, and I have no idea what she’s capable of when it comes to other girls,” I explained, hoping I didn’t sound like a liar. “She’s poison, and I didn’t want her to get in your head.”
“I read the text differently. I read it like you were telling me to get away from her because I was the bad guy or something,” she said, and I hadn’t even realized that she could interpret my message any other way than I’d meant it.
That Hayley was evil.
I shook my head. “No. I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that Hayley’s horrible, and just knowing she was near you after what happened the night before …” I stumbled all over my thoughts. “I don’t know, Sunny. She’s just bad.”
“I think between the text and then