Page 87 of Landon & Shay: Part One

I sat up in my seat as my eyes widened in horror. “You don’t know how to drive stick?!” I blurted out.

“No.” She shrugged. “I figured it couldn’t be that different.”

Jerk. Stop. Jerk. Ohmygoshwearegoingtodie.

“Pull the car over!”

“But—”

“Shannon Sofia! Pull the car over now!” I hollered, making her eyes shoot out of her face, and she quickly pulled over.

“Okay, okay, sheesh. You’re sounding so much like my grandmother right now. I’m getting out!”

“Good.”

We switched seats, and I tried my best to clear my thoughts to focus on getting us to Shay’s safely.

“How did you know my middle name?” she asked softly, looking my way.

I rubbed my thumb against my nose and tried to think of a way to not sound like a complete nerd. “When you used to come over to my place with your grandmother as a kid, she yelled it at you once. It’s just something that stuck in my head.”

Along with every detail about her since the first day I saw her.

I could feel her eyes on me, and I wished I could read her mind. I wished I knew how her thoughts worked. I wished I could read her the way she was so effortlessly good at reading me.

When we got to her house, she led me straight to her bedroom, not even giving me time to look around, and sat me down on the bed. “Let me get a warm rag for your eye. I’ll be right back,” she said.

I looked around her room, and her walls were covered in movie script pages and posters of actors and actresses. She had a bookshelf filled with notebooks, and I’d have bet she’d fill every single one out to the very last page.

Words came easy to her. I didn’t have enough thoughts to fill up one notebook, let alone dozens.

Shay came back with the warm towel and placed it against my face. I cringed a little but welcomed the warmth.

“You used to fight a lot before,” she whispered, gently dabbing my cheek. “When you were younger.”

“Yeah.”

“People probably always thought you were this beast or something, but you only fought people who bullied others…at least that’s what I noticed.”

“You noticed my fights?”

“I noticed your everything,” she confessed, and that frozen heart of mine thawed a bit. That happened a lot when she was around.

“Eric told me what you did for him today. That was very brave of you.”

“It was stupid. I could’ve lost my spot in the school play. I could’ve jeopardized graduating.”

“Yeah, it was stupid, but stupid things can still be brave things. Eric doesn’t really talk about it, about his sexuality.”

“Is that why you two broke up?”

She nodded. “I’ve known for a while. Did you know?”

I shrugged. “I kind of assumed but never brought it up. It was none of my business, and it didn’t change the fact that he was one of the most important people in my life. He can love anyone he wants and that isn’t going to change how I feel about the guy.”

“Wow.” She exhaled slowly and sat back on her heels. She stared at me with those eyes again, and my heart? A puddle.

“A penny for your thoughts?” I asked out loud. Mom used to always say that to me when I was a kid.

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