Page 39 of Honey Pot

“Kind of.” I sighed, relaxing a little under the ease of our banter. I sighed again and closed my eyes. “She ignored me in the kitchen this morning, but we have an interview this afternoon, and I don’t know how to act.”

“It’s cheesy, but you could try just being you,” Ella suggested.

“Hah,” I huffed. “She has this preconceived image of who I am, but it’s stitched together with memories of who I was. I’m not seventeen anymore.”

“You aren’t?” Ella’s head cocked sideways. “That’s the most shocking statement to leave your mouth today.”

“I’m not that kid from Texas,” I rephrased. “Any trace of that kid she clings to is gone.”

“Are you sure?” Ella sat up and scooted forward to take my face between her hands. “When I first arrived at Harbor things were volatile, my life had zero stability. Zoey did her best to help, and Van was there when he could be there, but do you know who made a difference?”

The gold ring, Arlo’s mother’s ring, dangled from her neck in a soft rhythm.

“Arlo,” I said, knowing it was the answer. He had become her diffuser, the one person who could step through her combustible thoughts like he was fireproof.

She scoffed. “The egg came before the chicken.”

“Did you just refer to us in a biblical fashion?”

“No, can you open one book this semester, just one…” Ella groaned and looked at me like I was insane. “It was you.”

“Well, now you're just lying to make me feel better.”

“We don’t do that, remember?” She shook her head, “You were so kind to me even when I was shoving back. I fought you every step of the way. If you asked me what I thought of the Cael Cody I met at the party, I would have told youhe was cocky, rude, a show-off with a need for validation. Nothing but a pretty smile. But you didn’t care how everyone else perceived you. You don’t now. So why do you care so much how this girl sees you?”

“It’s going to complicate things.” I swallowed tightly, scared of what would come if I continued being me.

“It’s already complicated. How much worse could it get?”

“Cael.” When I didn’t answer, she pressed our foreheads together. "If she doesn’t love you for who you are now, after everything you’ve been through, how hard you’ve fought to be here, then maybe she’s not yourhappy.”

“Easy enough for you to say,” I grumbled, and she pinched my cheek.

Ella scowled.

“Right.” I pulled back from her grasp, thoughts whirling around at a top speed.

I scratched the top of my head and rolled back onto the mat into the pile of sweat that formed from working out as we talked. “I just don’t know what to do.”

“You do what you do best, Misery.” Ella cupped my cheek in her hand. “You grovel.”

The door to the rehab gym popped open, and Silas wandered in. “I warned you two!” He shook his head. "You can’t be goofing around in here.”

“Yeah, Silas, because that’s what we’re doing,” Ella rolled her head to the side to look at him, “goofing around.”

Silas huffed in response and handed her a clipboard full of papers.

“It’s always what you’re doing,” he slapped me across the back of the head softly and sunk into a squat beside me. “How does it feel?”

“Like I crashed a car and ripped a bunch of fancy muscles in it then had surgery and am now recovering with no pain medication.” I looked up at him and met his icy gray stare. “It’s better.” I changed my answer when he found little amusement in the first response.

“What do you think?” He asked Ella, who hadn’t looked up from the papers she was scowling at.

“He’s getting better, I’ll have him ready by spring training.”

“Spring training!” I growled. That was months away.

Ella’s brown eyes lifted from the papers and stared a hole through my outburst.

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