Page 60 of Come Break My Heart Again

“Hi, Mrs. Parker. Is Keira home?”

“She’s upstairs. Come in.” She steps to the side for me to enter, then turns toward the staircase. “Keira! Elle’s here!”

My phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out and smile at the new message.

KEIRA: Come up.

“She said to come up,” I tell Mrs. Parker.

Keira’s mom shakes her head. “You kids and your gadgets. Let me know if you girls need anything.”

“I will. Thanks.”

I head upstairs and down the hallway, tapping lightly on Keira’s closed door.

It opens a few seconds later.

One sec, Keira mouths at me, gesturing for me to enter.

I walk into her bedroom and take a cross-legged seat on the mattress, watching as she shuts the door and smiles.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” she says. “I’ll, uh, talk to you then. Okay.” She smiles. “Bye.”

“Who was that?” I ask as she drops her phone on her desk and then joins me on the bed.

“Tucker.”

“Tucker? TuckerFranklin?”

“Uh-huh. He gave me his number at Maddie’s party, and we’ve been talking. He’s nice.”

“You’re blushing,” I tease.

“Fine. Niceandcute.”

“Do your parents know?”

The Parkers aren’t as obviously snobby as my parents are, but I’m guessing they’d have a lot to say about their only daughter dating a guy from the trailer park.

“No. We’re just flirting. It’s no big deal.” She sips from a can of seltzer, then glances at me. “What are you doing here? I thought you had that dinner with Archer and his parents tonight.”

“I did it.”

Keira gasps, her eyes wide. “You had sex with him?”

“What? No. Ibroke upwith him.”

“Oh my God. How did it go?”

“Great.”

She winces. “That bad?”

“He threw a basketball at the garage door, then took off and left his parents at my house.”

“Well, he’s always been a sore loser. Remember the game against Alleghany last year?”

“Yeah, I sure do.”

---