Page 10 of Let Me

Luna cackles like I made a joke, throwing her head up to the sky.She says, “Smoke going up to the heavens could be incense to the angels for all we know.”

“Luna, shut up,” Moriah says.

I grin a little, but my eyes are burning from the smoke and I’m tired after working all day, only to come out here to talk to people I don’t know.

That’s what you get for chasing after a man, I tell myself.This is all Riley’s fault.Yeah, I’ll blame it on her.

“Alright, Autumn.It was nice to meet you,” Tabitha says.”

“Nice to meet all of you as well.”

“Join us anytime, okay?”Moriah tells me.

“I will,” I answer.

But I won’t.

I don’t even know where Judah is.He walked off with Nico an hour ago, and I haven’t seen him since.Yeah, it’s definitely time to go.I can’t get to my car fast enough.I’m already thinking about everything I need to tell Riley, and I meaneverythingfrom Judah’s hippie friends down to the rumors.I feel like I’ve been bamboozled.Scammed.Roped into an esoteric community of people who think it’s cool to have campfires in the dead of summer.

“Ay, Autumn, wait up.”

It’s him.It’s his voice.

I turn around to see Judah jogging across the grass to get to me.

Darn it!I almost made it to my car.Almost got away unscathed under the cover of darkness.

As he jogs toward me, he asks, “Leaving already?”

I look at the time on my phone and say, “It’s a little after midnight.”

“Is it?I always seem to lose track of time these days.”He smiles, showing his perfect white teeth.Perfect lips.Perfect mouth.Perfect everything.

“How was it?”

“What?”

“Hanging out with all of us?”

How was it?That’s what you want to ask me?How was it??I’ll tell you how it was.I hated it.Never doing it again.I came out here for you.You abandoned me and went off with your friend somewhere.The women circled me like sharks and basically told me I was wasting my time if I thought you were interested in me.

Of course I won’t say that.He was kind to me, after all.

I say, “It was okay, but this is not something I would voluntarily do.Don’t get me wrong, I love the outdoors, but sitting around smoke isn’t up there on my list of favorite things.”

“Ah.Okay.I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”

Next time?What next time?

If he thinks I’m going to be one of the crew, he’s sorely mistaken.I didn’t come here for them.I came here forhim, but now I see that was a mistake because I thought he was feeling me.

He wasn’t.

I say, “Well, I’ll see you around.”

I watch him grimace.“You saidsee you aroundlike you didn’t actually want to see me again.”

“Um, I was just—”

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