Chapter 22
twenty-two
I woke up tangled in my sheets, pale winter light sneaking through the gap in my curtains. For a second, I lay there disoriented, my brain still stuck on cold balconies and borrowed jackets and the sound of my mum’s laughter drifting out the front door. Then reality snapped into place. School.
Downstairs, a cabinet slammed. Ainsley’s laugh followed, sharp and bright, then Sebastian’s voice telling her to move before he left without her.
Dragging myself out of bed, I slipped into my uniform. The tie took three tries before it sat halfway straight. I stared at myself in the mirror, smoothing the blazer like it might smooth everything else, but it didn’t.
When I finally made it downstairs, the kitchen was already its usual chaos.
Ainsley was perched on a stool at the island, blazer half-buttoned, tie loose and crooked on purpose.
Sebastian leaned against the fridge in jeans and a jacket, keys spinning lazily around his finger.
Lavender stood by the counter in her own uniform, immaculate as always, coffee in hand, but she was watching Mum like she was about to drop a secret.
Mum was at the stove, moving quickly, flipping pancakes and stirring something in a small pot on the back burner.
“Morning,” I mumbled, dropping my bag near the fridge.
“You’re late,” Ainsley said without looking up from her phone.
“Barely.” I grabbed the coffee and poured myself a huge mug. After Cole left, I’d stayed up half the night, alternating between smiling about him and worrying about my parents. It hadn’t been particularly restful.
Mum turned, spatula in hand, offering pancakes onto plates.
“Girls, come eat before it gets cold,” she said, her tone light but distracted. She glanced at the clock and muttered something under her breath, mostly to herself.
“You seem distracted, Mum,” Lavender said, her tone teasing. “I don’t suppose it has anything to do with last night?”
I choked on my coffee. After the argument Lavender and I had last night, I wouldn’t have expected her to talk about Mum’s date so blatantly. Her eyes flicked over to me and she frowned, but she turned back to Mum almost instantly.
Mum sighed, setting the last pancake on a plate. “Yes, well… it was fine,” she said, trying to sound casual, but her fingers lingered on the edge of the spatula a little too long. “Nothing dramatic, I promise.”
Ainsley snorted. “Fine? Mum, you’ve been glowing all morning. That’s not fine. That’s full-on giddy.” She tilted her head, smirking. “So, what’s his name again?”
Mum’s cheeks warmed. She opened her mouth, then closed it again. “I… haven’t decided if you kids should know yet.”
Lavender leaned on the counter, eyebrow raised. “You can’t just tease us like that.”
Ainsley grinned and leaned closer. “Come on, Mum. Spill. You can’t expect us to live in suspense.”
Mum shook her head, a little flustered but smiling now.
“Maybe later.” She placed a plate in front of me, and I caught the faint scent of vanilla and cinnamon in the pancakes.
I stared at them, my stomach dropping for a minute.
She hadn’t made them like this in months.
Definitely not since Dad had left. A memory flashed of the six of us eating breakfast on a sunny July morning, the same scent wafting through the kitchen as we laughed and smiled as a family. Before everything turned upside down.
“Eat before it gets cold,” Mum said.
I took a bite, letting the warmth spread through me, and for a second, the unease about school and last night’s argument faded. Sebastian poked me in the side as he stepped past me.
“What happened to you last night?” he asked. “By the time we got home, you were already upstairs.”
“Oh, uh…” I took a long sip of coffee so I could buy time before I had to answer. “Headache. Went to lay down and fell asleep with my lights on.”
I tried to laugh but it sounded hollow. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice except for Lavender, who was looking at me with an odd expression on her face. I purposely avoided her gaze, not anywhere ready to broach the topic of what was said last night.
For the same reason, when we all started out the door, I immediately moved toward Sebastian’s car instead of Lavender’s.
Ainsley didn’t notice anything off about it as she followed me there happily, despite my complaints the other day about how Sebastian’s driving was going to give me a concussion one of these days.
As we drove to school, I took the first deep breath I had all day.
I couldn’t wait to get to school and focus on nothing besides lectures and homework and the routine.
But my routine was disrupted when I closed Sebastian’s car door and my eyes locked on Cole’s sedan. I froze in place. He smirked at me from the driver’s seat.
Sebastian was already long gone, walking up the steps with an arm slung around Nora. Ainsley finally realized I wasn’t in step with her and turned. “What are you doing?”
“I…” I forced myself to look away from the car before she followed my gaze and realized what I was doing.
The last thing I needed was for her to be asking questions about why I cared if Cole was here.
I still hadn’t told her about the fight outside the fro-yo shop over the weekend—a secret that would have felt inconceivable a few months ago, but now, just felt like a drop in the bucket compared to everything I was holding back. “I forgot something.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What did you forget?”
“My…” My brain immediately went blank and I couldn’t remember a single thing I’d ever needed in my life. “Phone charger.”
“You don’t even bring a charger to school.”
“I keep one in Lavender’s car for emergencies,” I said, already backing up. Never mind the fact that I didn’t even have a key to Lavender’s car so I couldn’t get into it anyway. “And I just realized my phone didn’t charge for the whole night so I’m going to need it.”
“But—”
“I’ll meet you inside!” I interrupted before she could poke holes in my story. “I swear.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but someone called her name from behind her, and she glanced away for half a second.
That was all I needed. I slipped sideways into the flow of students, cutting between two groups, then veering off toward the edge of the lot.
My heart was beating way too fast for someone who was just walking.
I felt a little guilty for just ditching her like that, but when I looked back, I saw her engaged in conversation with Nora and the guilt eased a little.
I took a deep breath, allowing my heart rate to go back to normal, then as casually as I could, I wandered up to the beat-up car in the back corner of the lot. I assumed I would have to knock on the window to get his attention, but to my surprise, he got out of the car as I walked up.
“Stalking again?” I asked.
He pulled his hands out from behind his back, showing off a to-go cup and paper bag from The Corner Cup.
“For you,” he said. I stared at them, sure that I was misunderstanding. There was no chance he came all the way to my school, guaranteeing that he was late to school himself, just to give me coffee.
“What’s the catch?” I asked.
He smirked as if he was waiting for me to ask, then and he tilted his head toward the car. “Get in.”
The school’s warning bell rang. I looked toward the building, tightening my grip on the strap of my bag. I should step away right now. At best, staying here would make me late. At worst—and more likely—I would be missing the whole school day.
But then I looked at him, calm and waiting, like he already knew what my answer would be. And somehow that was enough to make all of the rules feel small.
I swallowed hard, my fingers curling around my bag strap. My heart was racing, and I knew that the longer I stood there, the less likely I was to walk away.
The bell rang again. I took a step toward the car.