Page 4 of Broken Promises

I have to go. Media day. Have a safe flight and text me when you land.

I will.

BFFEE!

I shake my head and shove my phone into my pocket as I slide into the seat next to Mav. I have no idea how Kai talked him into joining us, but he really doesn’t look like he wants to be here.

“Nervous flyer?” I ask him.

His honey brown eyes meet mine, and he looks devastated. “No. I’ve flown a lot. Leaving here without Ezra . . . I guess I didn’t realize it would be this hard.”

“I didn’t realize how close you guys were.” I honestly didn’t even know they knew each other until Kai told us they were friends.

“He’s my best friend,” Mav says before taking a deep breath like he’s trying to force calm into his body. A lump forms in my throat and all I can do is nod. Ezra is one of my best friends and what happened to him is hurting us all. No one is convinced he’s dead, but we don’t know what else to do at this point.

So we’re all trying to move on with our lives as much as we can. Life doesn’t seem to care when you need it to stop or slow down. I learned that too young, and it sucks to watch everyone I care about learning it now.

“I like the new hair,” he says, giving me a small smile.

“Thanks. It was my mom’s favorite color. I wanted to take her with me somehow,” I explain, even though he didn’t ask.

“I can tell,” he says, nodding towards my house. I laugh at where he’s gesturing to. The purple lilac bushes surround the small white house.

Kai and Cal pile into the limo. Kai’s expression is blank like it has been for weeks, but Cal is vibrating with excitement. I tune out his excited ramblings and stare out the window as our homes become smaller and smaller. I hear my mom’s voice in my head.

On to the next adventure, my darling.

ONE

willa

2 MONTHS AGO

Normally,the swaying of the bus as we drive to the next city for our next show lulls me to sleep. Tonight seems to be the exception. Jo is asleep in the bunk above me, while Mav’s quiet snores are coming from across the aisle. We gave Kai and Belle the small bedroom in the back, so we didn’t have to hear them.

Instead of sleeping, I’m doom scrolling through a different social media app every three minutes. I’m about to give up and try to get some sleep again when an alert pings, the notification freezing my fingers in their tracks.

San Diego Barracudas Star Declan Monroe Involved in Car Crash

I sit up so quickly I make myself dizzy.

“No, no, no, no,” I mutter as I jump out of my bunk and race to the front of the bus as quietly as I can. Cal and Harlow have their own bus, so at least I don’t have to worry about waking up Cora. I’m hitting Declan’s number over and over, but it keeps going to voicemail. “Come on, Dec,” I growl, my grip on the phone turning painful. I take a deep breath and try to steady my shaking limbs before pulling up the article. Dec’s red super car iswrapped around a tree. It’s hard to tell from the fuzzy image and all the first responders and their vehicles blocking the picture, but it looks totaled.

My hands shake so badly that I drop my phone. It immediately starts vibrating, and I scramble to pick it up. Declan’s name and the picture I took of him a few years ago after one of his games, his brown hair plastered to his forehead from sweat, green eyes shining, and his smile bright as always, flashes across the screen. It takes a few tries of shaky swiping to answer the call.

“Dec,” I breathe, throat tight with barely withheld tears.

“I’m okay, Princess,” his soothing voice comes through. I let out the breath I was holding and with it comes the tears. “I’m so sorry, Willa. I swear I’m okay.”

“You need to stop this, Declan!” I whisper-shout into my phone. I need him to understand how serious I am, but I don’t want to wake everyone else up. I angrily swipe the tears away while wishing I could reach through the phone and strangle him.

“No one was hurt. I was just trying to figure out how to do something. I swear I made sure no one was around first.”

“This is the third accident, Dec! The third!”

“Hey, the other two were —”

“Stop! Please stop all this Declan. You need to grow up. It’s not funny anymore,” I beg him. He sighs loudly, and I can hear his footsteps. I bet he’s pacing right now.

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