Page 81 of Pinkie Promise

She’s telling me that, whereas the last semester was spent focusing on school, we’re going to spend the rest of the winter getting triple-figure Fahrenheit hot.

Chapter 22

Fallon

The coach for the Carter U supporters set off five minutes before the coach for the Carter U players, a fact which has had Hunter blowing up my phone every thirty seconds with photos of our bus’s rear end.

HUNTER:your driver is going way too fast

FALLON:we are literally on the highway. what’s he supposed to do? go slow?

HUNTER:you’re riding with us on the way back

FALLON:wait. please tell me that the supporter coach leaves tomorrow, same time as the team coach?

A deafening silence has me checking the bus slip that Hunter gave me last week.

The supporter coach leaves tonight, whereas the team’s coach leaves tomorrow morning.

Oh my God. How did I not think to check this?

FALLON:I can’t ride with your team Hunter! wtf!

Hunter sends me a photo of the inside of the team’s bus with the caption:which seat do you want? you’re with the captain so you get first dibs.

Then he sends me a smiley face that makes me groan out a laugh.

“Oh my God,” I mumble, pressing my fingers into my forehead. I can tell from his texts that he’s got that hot smug grin on his face.

Suddenly nervous about the warm fuzzy feeling in my belly, I click the button at the top of my cell and turn my phone off for the rest of the ride.

I wriggle my hands up the sleeves of my cardigan and smooth out the pleats of my skirt with my new sleeve-paws.

I’m sat beside Winter, Caden’s girlfriend who doesn’t even attend Carter U, but seeing as Caden bought her ticket the college is none the wiser about her being here. She’s spent the past twenty minutes trying to share candy-floss flavoured grapes with me, peeking at me sideways as my face probably turns more and more green.

I’ve never been great with long distances.

She glances at me after my little outburst with my cell and she laughs as she watches me shove my phone into the bottom of my bag. I didn’t actually see Hunter before the bus left the Carter U lot but I watched from the window as Caden kissed goodbye to his girlfriend. They’re such a visual contradiction that I found it hard to look away.

Winter twizzles a soft pink curl around her fingers, curiosity shimmering in her eyes as she watches me.

“Wanna use mine instead?” she asks, holding her phone out to me with her earphone cord dangling over my arm. “If you wanna listen to music or something.”

The gesture is so trusting and thoughtful that I feel a small bloom of warmth in my chest.

“I’m okay, honestly,” I rasp, stifling a dry-heave.

She smiles at me as she slips her phone inside her bag, nestling it beside a literal full-sized Holy Bible. She crosses herlegs towards me, and nudges at my shoe with the pointy toe of her cowgirl boot.

“We’ll only be on the road for, like, another fifteen minutes. You get car sick or something?” she asks.

Wow, my face must bereallygreen.

“Mm-hm,” I admit, breathing shakily. “I’ve been doing long distances since I was a kid but my body never got used to it. When I was on the cheer comp team and we used to go cross-country? I’d be the girl lying in the aisle, trying not to pass out.” I laugh at the memory, fanning my embarrassed cheeks with my hand. “The driver actually had to pull over one time so that I could recalibrate my body. It felt like I couldn’t breathe which, obviously, is not ideal.”

Winter laughs and gives my shoulder a little nudge. The action almost makes me retch, and she gives me an apologetic laugh while handing me her bottle of water.

“You need a good distraction, is all,” she says as I sip the water like my life depends on it. Right now, it feels like it does. “I used to get it too, but when I started travelling with Cade it honestly went away. When I’m not riding with him I just listen to music. Long songs that I know all of the lyrics to. I’ll listen to the ten minute version of ‘All Too Well’ twelve times and suddenly I don’t want the two hour road-trip to end.”

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