Blake
Isee Briar slumped against the wall in this dark hallway, tears streaming down her face, looking so small and broken.
Worry surges through me like a tidal wave, leveling my insides.
I go up to her and cup her face in my hands.
“What happened?” I ask, unable to hide the urgency from my voice.
She gazes up at me, her big green eyes red from crying.
My chest aches like it’s on the verge of cracking in half. I hate seeing her so sad.
Urgency rockets through me. I need to make her feel better. Whatever upset her, whatever made her cry like this, I need to find out what it was so I can make it disappear forever.
She sniffles. “I got into an argument with my mom. She wants me to go back to Chicago and enroll again.”
Panic zooms through me at the thought of her leaving.
“I told her no. There’s no way I’m going back there,” she says.
I let out a slow, quiet breath of relief, then I feel like a jerk for even focusing on that because right now, my focus should be on her and making her feel better.
I drop my hands from her face and hug my arms around her. She slides her small arms around me.
For a while, I don’t say anything. When Briar’s upset, she doesn’t like to be peppered with questions. She just wants quiet support, which I always try to give her.
She nuzzles her face in my chest, and I squeeze her tight.
“I’m sorry your mom upset you,” I say softly.
She exhales softly. I feel her body relax against me.
“And not that you need me to say this, but you’re doing the right thing by refusing to go. You get to decide where you want to go to school, Briar. No one else.”
I stop myself from saying more. I don’t want to overwhelm her.
But then, a moment later, she leans back and looks at me. Her pretty face is puffy from crying, but there’s a brightness in her eyes.
Her mouth curves up in a small smile. “You’re the best, Blake. Seriously.”
A warm feeling loops through my chest.
She steps back and sighs, tugging a hand through her hair. “My mom just doesn’t get it. She thinks I’m being weak and stupid for leaving school over a breakup.”
She gazes off to the side at the wall and crosses her arms over her chest. “I couldn’t be around Logan anymore. Just seeing him made me sick to my stomach. I just…”
Her eyes are teary again as she looks down at her shoes.
She gazes up at me. “Am I pathetic, Blake, for running away?”
That protective feeling inside of me surges through my chest.
I shake my head. “No. Not even close. Don’t say that about yourself.”
I don’t know what caused their breakup, but whatever it was must have been really bad for her to be this upset.
Maybe he cheated on her. Or maybe he threatened her.
Or maybe it’s something worse. Maybe he put his hands on her…
Rage pumps hot through my veins.
Part of me wishes Briar would tell me what exactly went wrong. But she clearly doesn’t want to talk about it, and I’m not about to pry.
“My parents think I’m stupid,” she says.
I grab her shoulders, and she looks up at me, her big eyes puffy and watery with tears.
“You are not stupid, Briar. And look, I know your parents. I like them. They’ve always been nice to me. But if they’re calling you stupid, screw them.”
She hugs me again. “Thanks, Blake. You’re such a good friend.”
I rest my chin on top of her head as I hold her tight.
When we break apart, she looks at my T-shirt and frowns.
“Shoot, I got your shirt wet.” She starts to wipe her hand over the front of my shirt, but I gently wrap my hand around her wrist, stopping her.
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t care about this shirt. All I care about is making you feel better.”
The sadness in her eyes fades. She wipes her face with her sleeves.
“Don’t get your clothes dirty. Just use my shirt.”
When her mouth curves up in a small smile, that warm feeling burrows deeper inside of me.
“I can’t go back out to the table looking like this.” She looks up at me. “Do I look like a blotchy, snotty mess?”
I shake my head and hold her gaze. “You look beautiful.”
“Liar.” She sniffles.
“You know I’m a terrible liar, B.”
She flashes a proper grin that makes my chest ache. It’s so good to see her smile like that after she was so sad.
“I’m going to get cleaned up in the bathroom, then I’ll come back to the table,” she says.
“If you don’t want to be around anyone right now, Briar, you don’t have to. I’ll tell them that something came up and then take you back home.”
She gives my hand a soft squeeze. “It’s okay. I want to.”
She goes into the women’s restroom. I head back out to the table. When Briar comes back to the table, she’s smiling, and that sad look in her eyes is gone.
We pay our tab and then head out. Nick and Poppy leave to stay at her apartment. Travis and Anna walk off in the direction of Anna’s apartment.
“You guys want a ride back to the house?” Leo asks me.
Briar looks up at me. “I feel like walking. Is that okay?”
“Of course.” I turn to Leo. “We’re gonna walk.”
We say goodbye and step out into the cool early autumn evening. We head down the street in the direction of the house.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” I say to Briar as she strolls along the street.
She looks confused for a second, but then she smiles when I move so that I’m closer to the street.
“Right. Meat shield,” she says through a soft laugh.
We walk in comfortable silence for a few minutes.
“Wait.” Briar stops walking all of a sudden and turns to me. “You were about to ask me something at the table before my mom called me.”
“Oh. That.” I shove my hands in my pockets and look down at the sidewalk. “It’s nothing.”
“No, really. What were you going to ask me?”
Nerves flicker inside of me. “I, um, was just wondering if you were free next weekend to go as my date to that dinner for the hockey team.”
She looks surprised that I asked her. That’s when I realize how I made it sound.
“As a friend,” I say quickly. “I hate going to those things alone. If I don’t have a date, I always end up getting roped into being DD for the guys on the team who hit the drinks too hard. I don’t really want to spend my evening playing chauffeur to a bunch of my drunk teammates.”
She smiles. “Sure, I’d love to go as your date.”
I grin. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Dinner at a fancy French restaurant paid for by someone else sounds really fun.”
“Thanks, Briar. You’re the best.”
“It’s the least I could do after you let me cry into your shirt earlier at the diner.”
She’s joking, but I still feel awful thinking about how sad she was.
“You don’t owe me anything. I’m your best friend. I’m always here for you. Sad stuff, happy stuff, everything in between. Okay?”
She looks over at me, her eyes bright. “Okay.”
We wait at a stoplight to cross the street, then walk the three blocks to the house.
Once we’re inside, I kick off my shoes. I start to head into the kitchen, but Briar catches my wrist, stopping me.
She gazes up at me with those big, green doe eyes. Then she tiptoes up and presses a soft kiss to my cheek.
“Thank you for everything, Blake. You mean so much to me.”
I stare down at her, my heart beating fast at the softness in her tone and the brightness in her eyes, and the way my skin on my cheek is tingling from her lips.
I swallow hard, pushing that thought out of my mind. I nod at her as she smiles and walks upstairs and disappears down the hall toward my bedroom.
I stand there, my head spinning. God, that kiss felt good. I want to feel her lips on me again.
Don’t even think that. She kissed you on the cheek. It was a friendly kiss, nothing more.
I repeat that silent reminder to myself the rest of the night. But the urge to kiss Briar stays with me, even though I know it shouldn’t.