Chapter 34
START WHERE EVERYTHING FELL APART
Thane
Ihand Sera a towel from the bathroom hook, and we stand in front of the mirror together, dripping with rain. She wrings her hair out over the sink and I follow suit with my T-shirt. We meet eyes and begin to laugh.
“I feel like we just did this at the Waffle House,” I say to her.
A warm smile crosses her face and all I can do is stare at her lips. “With all the things that went wrong during that trip, I have to admit, it was pretty fun.” Her eyebrow rises and she follows with, “With the exception of the gas station burritos.”
“I one hundred percent agree. That was one of the worst days of my life.”
She wraps her hair in a towel like a turban and grabs her PJs off the counter. “I’ll just be a sec,” she says, and disappears into the bunk room.
I’m left alone with my reflection, and the fear looking back at me is almost enough to make me change my mind.
What if, when she hears the truth, she leaves for good?
I push the thoughts away and peel off my soaking-wet clothes, tossing them over the shower curtain rod to dry.
By the time I’m dressed in dry clothes, she is sitting on the couch in the loft.
I take a big, steadying breath, and move to sit next to her.
This is it. The moment I’ve been running from for the last five years is sitting right in front of me.
I’ve rehearsed what I would say a million times, but as she turns toward me and curls up cross-legged, my brain malfunctions and I forget every word.
She takes a shaky breath in, and her face shows exactly what’s twisting in my gut. At least we’re both terrified of this conversation. I force a smile and a nervous laugh escapes me.
“Uh, so where do you want to start?” I ask, fully prepared to have her slap me in the face and never talk to me again afterward.
“You could start by telling me the truth about the accident,” she says with a shrug. “Since that’s where everything fell apart.”
“Okay,” I say on an exhale, and unlock the door on all my secrets.