Page 74 of The Bro Pact
Ren bursts into tears, dropping the paper and spinning on his heel. He bolts out of the classroom, sprinting toward the boy’s restroom.
I take off after him, my sneakers squeaking against the linoleum floor.
He turns the corner, and I lose sight of him, but I know where he went.
I slowly push the bathroom dooropen. “Ren? You in here?”
I close my eyes and listen for a moment, hearing sniffling coming from the handicapped stall at the end.
“Renny?” I whisper-shout, hoping he’ll talk to me.
Silence.
“Look, Renny. I know you’re in here. Please just come out.”
“Go back to class before you get a tardy, Kyle.”
“No,” I reply stubbornly, ready to ruin my perfect attendance and zero tardiness record for him.
“Nothing you say can fix it,” he croaks.
My mind scrambles, trying to think of something, but he doesn’t have a grandmother or any aunts nearby to take him either.
“My mom will take us both,” I say matter-of-factly. “She’ll love it.”
The stall finally opens. “Really?” His eyes are red and puffy, but they light up with hope, so I smile reassuringly.
“Yeah, Renny. Of course. We’re best friends. Forever.”
I’m torn from the dream when Ren hits a pothole, jostling my head against the window.
“Whoops! Sorry ’bout that.”
I grumble, rubbing my forehead.
Ren glances over at me, chuckling. “Good morning,Sleeping Beauty.”
The fact that I’m not a morning person applies to naps, too, so when he glances over, I give him the middle finger.
Warren barks out a loud laugh that I choose to ignore.
Slouching in my seat—intent on going back to sleep—I pull my baseball cap low and fold my arms across my chest. “Wake me when we get there.”
“We may have gone a little overboard,” Ren says as he sets the containers of locally made peanut brittle and chocolate covered pretzels down on the counter.
“It’s fine, seriously,” I reassure him. “My mom wants us to eat well, and besides, we’re making up for all those boring-ass ham sandwiches we ate.”
Not that I dislike them.
After the farmers’ market, we found a completely vacant RV park using the app that Ren downloaded.
There’s no scenery here, but it’ll do the job for one night before we hit the road to California.
We stocked up on fresh produce like strawberries, watermelon, tomatoes, and eggplant. We also grabbed enough lettuce, cucumber, and carrots for a week’s worth of salad, as well as a dozen free-range eggs.
I’m glad my mom pushed us to do this. We had a blast, and now we’ll be eating well for the rest of our trip.
I pull up my texts, scrolling through the different recipes she just sent me. “Okay, if you wanna make dessert, I’ll make dinner,” I offer to Ren who just shrugs, accepting the job without a fuss.
