He turns to me, struggling to stay calm. “He hurt you?”
I sink into my seat, wanting anything but this conversation. “No. Not like that. We used to be friends, and we had a falling-out, and now he’s back, and I’m running into him everywhere—”
“You’ve run into him before.” He’s staring at the road again. His knuckles tighten on the steering wheel.
“Just . . . in the neighborhood. He’s not important, okay, Max?”
“Seems like a glaring omission to me.”
I shake my head. “Cricket means nothing to me, I swear.”
“He wants to take you out every night, and you expect me to believe there’s nothing going on?”
“There’s not!”
The van jerks to a halt in front of my house, and Max pounds on the steering wheel. “Tell me the truth, Lola! Why can’t you tell me the truth for once?”
My eyes sting with tears. “I am telling the truth.”
He stares at me.
“I love you.” I’m getting desperate. He has to believe me. “I don’t love him, I don’t even like him! I love you.”
Max closes his eyes for what feels like an eternity. The muscles in his neck are tense and rigid. At last, they relax. He opens his eyes again. “I’m sorry. I love you, too.”
“And you believe me?” My voice is tiny.
He tilts my chin toward his and answers me with a kiss. His lips press hard against mine. I push back even harder against his. When we break apart, he looks deep into my eyes. “I believe you.”
Max speeds away in his van, the Misfits blasting in a musical cloud of dust behind him. I slump. So much for my day off.
“Who was that?”
I startle at the sharp voice behind me. And then I turn to face her for the first time in two years. Her dark hair is pulled back into a tight ponytail, and she’s wearing warm-up clothes.Yet she still manages to look more beautiful than I ever will.
“Hey, Calliope.”
She stares at me as if to say, Why haven’t you answered my question?
“That was my boyfriend.”
Calliope looks surprised. “Interesting,” she says, after a moment. And I can tell she is, in fact, interested. “Did my brother find you? He went out looking for you.”
“He did.” I speak the words cautiously. She’s waiting for more, but I’m not giving it to her. I don’t even know what more would be. “Nice seeing you again.” I move toward the stairs.
I’m halfway to my front door when she says, “You look different.”
“And you look the same.”
I shut the door, and Nathan is waiting on the other side. “You didn’t call.”
Oh, no.
He’s furious. “You were supposed to check in over an hour ago. I called five times, and it went straight to your voice mail. Where have you been?”
“I forgot. I’m sorry, Dad, I forgot.”
“Was that Max’s van? Did he get a new car?”