Page 2 of Broken Promises

“No one has seen him in a while.” His voice is starting to shake. Kai is hardly ever concerned about anything, so now I’m worried.

“Have you seen Belle? They’re probably together.”

Kai stiffens for a moment. “You’re right. I’ll find her. Can you keep looking?”

“Of course,” I tell him.

It only takes a few minutes and a couple of questions to figure out that no one has seen Ezra since we finished our set. Kai found Belle and Cal, who were also no help. Now we’re searching the woods and yelling Ezra’s name.

We spend the entire night searching. The police eventually took over, but that didn’t stop us. We looked under every log and behind every boulder. I’m pretty sure Kai was about to try to jump in the river at one point and look, but Cal stopped him.

He’s gone. There isn’t a single trace of him. No one saw him leave. One of my best friends just vanished into thin air.

If I didn’t like the woods before, I fucking hate them now.

“For someone who just signed a major record deal, you don’t seem excited.”

“I am,” I say, mustering up as much enthusiasm as I can. The loud sigh from the other end of the phone tells me Declan isn’t buying it.

“When did we start lying to each other?”

“I’m not lying, Dec. I’m just confused.” I throw myself dramatically onto my bed in my very purple bedroom. My mom decorated it when I was five, so it’s covered in unicorns and rainbows. The walls are light purple with unicorns running on rainbows painted on them. The carpet is dark purple with polka dots that used to be white but are now more of a light gray. Even my comforter is purple. Not really my style, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to change it since she died when I was eight.

“Alright. Let’s talk it out. Pros and cons, Princess. You want me to start?” I smile despite myself. Declan is one of the least organized people I know, but he knows how much I love a good pros and cons list.

“Go for it, hockey boy.”

“The pros are easy. Rich, famous, you get to travel like you always talked about. Men and women will want to be you and be with you.” There’s a pause that causes me to pinch my lips between my teeth to stop myself from laughing. “On second thought, that last one is on the con list.”

I laugh this time, not bothering to smother it. “Are the rules different for me? I was going to follow yours. No kissing. Neversleep with the same person twice. Make sure they know what this is upfront so feelings aren’t hurt. Always use a condom.”

“I hate this conversation,” Declan mumbles.

“I’m not a virgin, Dec.”

“No one is good enough for you, Willa.” I sigh at his words. Declan has always been overprotective, which is really a feat considering we lived six hours apart. And that was before he moved to the other side of the country.

“It doesn’t matter if people don’t like us.”

“People are going to love you.”

I bite my lip and stare at the ceiling, trying to figure out how to put my fears into words.

“Whatever it is, you know you can tell me,” Declan says, his voice soft.

“Sometimes I feel like I make decisions too fast and one of these days, it’s going to catch up to me,” I admit. “What if it’s the worst thing I could do, and I won’t know it for another twenty years?”

Declan chuckles. “Princess, what if it’s the best? Even if it backfires, you’ll still have a really cool experience.”

I look at my purple walls and try to remember the face of the woman who painted them. I have so few memories of her, but I remember how much she loved to live in the moment. If it started to rain while we were outside, we would dance in it, our matching blonde manes plastered to our faces. If the store was out of oranges, it was a great time to try dragon fruit. When the radio died in her old beat-up station wagon, we would sing at the top of our lungs.

I’m on to my next adventure, my darling. I’ll see you again when you join me and oh, what fun we’ll have. Those were her last words to me, and I think I’ve been unconsciously living by them. I didn’t realize it until hours after I signed my name onthe line next to Kai’s. There was no hesitation in my decision. Because it was the next adventure.

“Do you want to do this?” Declan asks, interrupting my thoughts.

“I do,” I admit.

“Then give it everything. If you fail, you won’t be able to say you didn’t try to make it work.”

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