Page 83 of Landon & Shay: Part One

“You’re a lot like that Joey character,” Maria remarked, nodding toward the screen. “A dorky, handsome guy.”

I snickered and raised an eyebrow, giving her a slight nod. “How you doin’?” I quoted.

Of course, Maria didn’t pick up on Joey’s infamous line, and she shrugged her shoulders. “I’m doing fine, but this show is awful.”

That made me laugh even more.

I’d never had a grandmother figure, but I figured this was what it would feel like if I did. It would be a collection of random moments that added up to big things, big memories. That was what Maria had been to me over the past several years. She’d been these small moments that built up into something important to me. There weren’t many important things in my life, but she was one of them.

Top five at least.

Her granddaughter was climbing her way up that ladder, too.

After the night ended, Maria collected her things and headed to the front door. “Thank you for tonight, Landon. I know you may not know this, but I needed today. I needed a day off.”

“I’m glad I could help.” I brushed my hand through my hair before stuffing my hands into the pockets of my jeans. “Hey, Maria?”

“Yes?”

“How’s your heart today?”

She gave me a small smile and her eyes watered over, and to my surprise, a small tear danced down her cheek. “Still beating.”

I hugged her without asking permission, because Maria wasn’t the type of person who needed warning that a hug was coming her way.

She simply always hugged back.

* * *

On Monday,it was apparent that Monica and Reggie were a new pairing, which was odd because I was pretty sure Tracey and he had just ended their fling like, forty-eight hours ago. A lot can change over a weekend with teenagers. The hormones move so fast and it was hard to keep up with who was loving who each week. Monica made sure to have herself wrapped all around the wannabe Eminem, and every chance she got, she’d flash me a wicked smirk that read,Jealous?

Not really, Mon.

Every time I saw her, she was looking worse. I wanted to check in on her, wanted to make sure she was eating and at least trying to sleep, but as time moved on, I realized I wasn’t the person she wanted me to be. Therefore, it was probably best to keep my distance.

Still, it rubbed me the wrong way seeing her with Reggie. It turned out that asshole wasn’t worthy of any girl’s time. Including Monica. I shot her a message, telling her he had issues and was an abusive dick, but she told me to mind my own business.

As I looked away from the odd pairing, I turned and walked over to Eric, who was standing at his locker.

“Did you hear? Monica and Reggie appear to be a thing,” I mentioned, patting him on the back.

“Yeah, they were all over each other at the party this weekend,” Eric said, his voice low. He hadn’t turned to face me, and he seemed less than his chipper self. If anyone was a morning person, it was Eric. He’d walk in singing songs fromThe Sound of Musicat seven in the morning like that wasn’t the most annoying thing in the world.

“What’s up with you? You seem less than awake. Party too hard?” I asked.

He finally turned to face me, revealing a black eye. I raised an eyebrow at him, giving him a ‘what the fuck’ expression. Over the weekend, the guys (+Raine) had been texting me nonstop about a party at Reggie’s house, telling me to come out and kick it, but I’d ignored them all, because if I had to choose between hanging out with Shay and going to Southern Charmer’s party, I was always going to go with Shay.

Hell, if I had to choose between Shay and anyone lately, I’d probably still go with Shay.

“What the hell happened to you?” I spat out, looking him up and down.

He grimaced and shook his head. “It’s nothing. It’s not a big deal,” he muttered.

“Dude, half your face is black and blue. This doesn’t look like it’s nothing.”

“Just drop it, will you, Land?!” he snapped.

Yup, that’s right—Eric, cool as a cucumber Eric, snapped.

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