Page 126 of Left on Read

“Listen to some tunes and touch grass?”

He huffed out a soft chuckle. “Good. And what else?”

“Um.” I thought back on our conversation. “Call you if I don’t feel better after the second song?”

He nodded encouragingly.

“And tell you when we’re on our way home.”

“Awesome. You’ve got this.”

His praise helped shut up the little voice in my head that still wanted to rage out and make me obsess over all the worst-case scenarios that could happen.

“I’ve got this,” I repeated.

“Yes, you do.”

“When’s your meeting?” I asked, just then remembering he’d told me about some teacher thing he had to do tonight. That’s why he was still at school now.

“Not for another hour, but I won’t get home until late. Probably not until ten.”

My heart sank. So much for maybe going over after he was finished. Being on different schedules sucked.

“Take another deep breath for me. Good. You’ve got this, remember?”

“I’ve got this. Talk soon.” I needed to say goodbye before I found another reason to keep talking to him.

“Soon.” He blew me a kiss and ended the call.

I slipped in my earbuds and went to my Spotify to put on the newest playlist I’d made. The familiar notes of “Light ’Em Up” filled my ears.

Emptying my mind, I leaned back against the tree and let the music take over.

“Can you play House of Memories?” I asked Zane.

He nodded and strummed the opening bars of the song.

I leaned back against the couch and stared down at the blank page in front of me.

Nothing was coming. I was so empty that I couldn’t even draw. It was like my brain was blank.

Zane had come to get me after I’d hung up with Hayden. He and the rest of the crew had decided to shut the site down for the night, and we’d left. Pops was going to contact Jerry tomorrow to try and get some answers. As our foreman and the crew dad, he was the only one of us who could talk to Jerry without getting our asses arrested.

We had no idea what we were going to do in the morning. The crew was divided on just not showing up and saying ‘fuck it’ and rolling over and taking the blow we’d been dealt.

Hayden had gone all out and ordered enough food to feed a small army, and even after eating our fill, we had a ton of leftovers to go around. That had taken even more stress off us, and Gray and Noah had gone home about an hour ago.

Now Zane and I were in our living room, trying to pass the time until we had to go to bed.

Ping.

Zane paused his song. That notification had come from both of our phones.

Curiously, I checked my screen. “It’s the group chat.”

Zane resumed strumming the song. I opened the thread.

Quinn: I heard about what happened at work. I have something I want to talk to you guys about.

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