She gave me a long stare as she filled up the teakettle. “No, they don’t.”
We moved from awkward conversation to silence for a while as she moved about the kitchen, pulling out snacks and tea from some weird tin. She was so different, yet I could still see parts of my old friend there. Some of her mannerisms were the same, like how she bit her bottom lip as she became impatient while waiting for the water to boil and how she rocked her hips when she was standing. I used to call her a valley girl for that silly movement after seeing the girls on Clueless do it. She would just laugh it off and keep doing it.
Liv finished pouring our tea—some weird herbal blend and set the mugs on a tray along with a plate of cookies. She brought everything over and set it on the table and joined me. I added a bit of cream to my tea and grabbed a spiced cookie to nibble on.
“So, are we going to talk about why you ran out of here like a demon on graduation night and then never came back? Or are we going to continue to ignore it?”
I knew she would ask, yet I still hadn’t prepared an answer.
“I…had to leave. I just…I’m sorry, Liv. I’m not ready to talk about this yet.”
I looked up, expecting to see hurt or anger, but she was radiating understanding.
“Okay, I can deal with that—as long as you’ll be ready to talk someday.”
“Okay,” I agreed, not knowing if that day would ever come.
As we continued to eat our cookies and sip our teas, something was tugging at me, something I needed to know. It was more than what Liv had been doing since high school, more than whether that ice cream store was still down the street from my old house. I needed to know about him.
“Liv, I need to know. Does Garrett still live here?”
Saying his name out loud hurt. I didn’t think I’d actually said those precious syllables in years. Hearing it spring free from my lips felt like I was cutting deep into my own flesh. It felt raw and ragged, like gravel against my vocal cords, and I was ashamed for even saying it.
She gave me a sympathetic gaze. “I don’t know. After you…after that night, he hounded me for days that turned into weeks, trying to get a clue as to where you went. When I finally convinced him I was in the dark like he was, I didn’t hear from him again. He went off to college, and that was it.”
We were supposed to go to college together—the beginning to our crazy life, as he’d called it. We’d picked out all of our classes together. He was going to be my brainy architect, and I was going to be his sexy teacher. But I’d left, and he had gone alone.
Now, I was here. I wondered where life had taken him.
I only hoped he was happy.
Chapter Two
~Mia~
It had been a week since I came home, back to the place I’d sworn I would never return. When I’d fled down that dark, deserted road on that night so long ago, I’d promised myself I would do him the favor of never returning. After I’d caused so much pain, he deserved that at least.
So, why now? After all this time, why had I come back?
Once again, I was running.
It seemed to be something I was highly skilled in. When the walls of my carefully built life in Atlanta had started to cave in on me, I’d needed out, and I had bailed. I’d packed up everything I owned, and I’d found myself on the interstate, headed for home. It always felt safe and secure here, and I liked the person I had been here—before the end.
In the week since I’d returned, I temporarily moved in with Liv. Living with Liv was great. After so much time and how different we had both become, I had been afraid that things would be awkward and that the friendship we had once shared would be gone. But it wasn’t, and we naturally fell into that sweet spot—somewhere between best friends and sisters. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her until I had her back, and I didn’t think I would ever forgive myself for pushing her away for so long. The fact that she’d opened up her home and life to me after eight long years and one email just showed the type of person she was. I didn’t deserve such compassion.
She wanted me to move in permanently, but I’d spent years living with others, and for once, I wanted to live on my own. I needed to live on my own. I was twenty-five years old, and I didn’t think I even knew myself. Who was I without someone else? I’d come here in search of something. That had to be it, right? I needed to find out.
I picked out a great house not too far from Liv. It was old and needed work, and it was pricey because of the neighborhood, but I took it on the spot. With my preapproved loan and sizable down payment—thanks to years of saving money—it would be mine in a week.
After throwing together breakfast this morning from the last of the groceries, we decided a trip to the farmers’ market might be fun. Liv said she would go every week to get local produce, rather than buying from the grocery store. According to Liv, big-business grocery stores that choked out small farmers were going to be the death of our society.
“Who the hell are you?” I asked as we roamed around the streets filled with vendors selling everything from kale to nuts to strawberries.
“I’m the same girl. I’m just an upgraded, more worldly version,” she said.
Her sassy smirk reminded me of a younger Liv.
“But how did this upgrade happen? I mean you didn’t just wake up one day and decide that trust funds sucked and hemp bracelets were way cooler.”
She gave me a pointed looked and snickered. Then, she continued her search for the perfect tomato, squeezing one and then another, as I watched.
“It was college actually.” She picked up a juicy red tomato and turned it over in her hand before placing it on the scale with the others she’d picked out.
The man on the other side of the stand told her the amount she owed. They finished their business, and we moved on.
“I was sitting in a sociology class. It wasn’t my major at the time. It was just something I was taking to fill a general ed requirement. The professor was lecturing about the African society and how they had been basically crippled by the AIDS epidemic. I remember sitting there, staring at these pictures in my textbook. I was bored out of my mind. I looked down at my nails to see a chip in my Very Berry nail polish, and I was just beside myself. I was so annoyed because I’d had a manicure only three days earlier. My professor was in front of the class, speaking about people dying, and I was pissed because my nail was chipped. I mean, how bitchy is that? I don’t know. I guess I just had a light bulb moment.”