Who We Could Be - Chelsea M. Cameron Page 0,25
friend,” she said, and I had to choke down some tears. I wasn’t going to cry. I was so fucking sick of crying.
“There’s nothing to thank me for.” She gave me one last squeeze and let go. The three of us walked to our vehicles and I waved goodbye as Tessa got in Gus’s Jeep.
Alone again.
“YOU’D BETTER BE PACKING,” I said a few days later, the night before we were due to fly to Savannah.
“Uhhhh, yeah. I’m packing,” Tessa said.
“So you’re telling me if I suddenly gained the ability to teleport that I would find you putting clothes and other items into a suitcase right now?”
There was a rustling sound.
“Yes, definitely.”
“Tessa.”
“I’m waiting for the dryer to finish! I’m doing it! You’re worse than my mom, Jesus.” More rustling and some cursing.
“Please, just get your stuff packed sooner rather than later. I am not doing that thing where we have to rush through security and run to the gate.”
Tessa snorted. “Ford, it takes like two seconds to run from one end of the airport to the other. This is Portland, Maine, not LaGuardia.”
That was true, but I still didn’t want to add any extra stress on the trip. I almost wished we were driving instead of flying, because there was so much that could go wrong when planes were involved.
“Please, Cin. This isn’t easy for me, can you not?”
She sighed. “Shit. I’m sorry. I’m being a jerk. Yeah, I’m going to pack right now, as soon as my stuff comes out of the dryer. I’ll even send you a picture as proof. You know we don’t have to go.”
I looked at my already packed suitcase. “No, I want to do this. I need to do this.” My need to get away from this town, away from the memories and gossip it brought had grown by the day and I was just done. It was time for something new, someplace new, even if it was just for a week. I needed to breathe new air and see new people.
“I’m good, I promise.”
“Okay. I’ll get my shit together and see you tomorrow at the asscrack of dawn.”
“Cute, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She signed off with a grumbling noise and I did get a picture of a suitcase a few hours later as I was trying to trick myself into going to sleep early so I wasn’t dragging tomorrow. It took an hour and a half to get to the airport, and we needed time to go through security, so leaving early enough to make our flight was crucial.
Almost time for bestfriendimoon.
Seven
Tessa
“See? I told you we were going to be fine,” I said through a yawn as we waited in the uncomfortable airport chairs. I’d propped my feet up on my luggage, and my foot kept falling asleep. There were only a few other people at our gate, and our flight wasn’t for another hour. I was so fucking tired already and I needed to catch some sleep on the plane so I’d be ready for fun when we got to Savannah.
Monty had been on her phone nearly the whole time and I kept trying to engage her in conversation, but I could tell she wanted to be left alone, so I tried to amuse myself by just staring at everyone else. I couldn’t lie, I would hang out in this airport all day watching everyone else. What a fascinating place.
Most of the time I was too broke for much travel, so this was something special and I was going to make the most of it, at least, after I’d had a nap.
“Mmmm,” Monty said, scrolling mindlessly through her phone. Giving up, I put on my headphones and listened to podcasts until it was finally, finally time to board the flight.
By some miracle, Monty and I had managed to get seats together on the tiny plane. I didn’t know what I would have done if we hadn’t been next to each other.
Once we got seated, I got myself as comfortable as I could be in the window seat, but there just wasn’t a whole lot of wiggle room. Monty was still on her phone, but I could see one of her eyes twitching, which definitely meant she was freaking out a little.
“We’ll be there in no time,” I said, squeezing her arm clamped on the armrest.
“Sure,” she said, not looking up from her phone. I didn’t think she even knew what she was looking at anymore.
“Lay back and put your headphones on. You’ve seen the