Page 5 of I Would Stay Forever
“Yes,” Dad said.
The next thing I knew, I’d dropped my towel and was running at him in just my bathing suit. Dad didn’t mind that I was soaked from being in the hot tub, and he didn’t say anything about the fact that I was running around our front lawn in my bikini. He just swept me up in a hug and pressed the keys into my hands.
“Why don’t you take your first spin?” he suggested.
“You really mean it?” I asked him. Then I looked at Mum, who was still standing on the front porch and smiling indulgently. “You really, really mean it?”
“We do,” Dad said. He went to open the car door, but then paused. “You might want to get dressed first. Just on the off chance that you get pulled over—I’m not sure the cop will take too kindly to the fact that you’re in a bikini.”
I was so happy that I barely even noticed the joke. I was too busy staring in awe at my car.My car.Imagine that. I wouldn’t have to bum rides off Sebastian anymore, wouldn’t have to sit around waiting for him, wouldn’t have to deal with his fangirls at school every morning. And best of all, it meant no more dealing with Tiffany and the fights they always seemed to get into when driving.
This was my car. All mine. And in a family of four kids, getting something that was all yours could be really, really difficult. I wasn’t going to let this moment go.
“Thank you,” I said gratefully to Dad. I went up on my tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. Even though they said it was from the two of them, I knew my dad’s handiwork whenever I saw it. This was his gift, really.
I ran inside to get dressed, going so fast that I wasn’t even sure if all my clothes matched. Dad was still waiting for me when I came running back out, opening and closing the door for me like it was a carriage. As I got ready to drive off, he leaned in one last time.
“Good job, kiddo,” he said. Then he ruffled my hair, stepped back, and let me take off all on my own.
Zoey’s reaction was pretty much the same as mine, in that she screamed “no way” about a hundred times, then jumped in the passenger seat and demanded that I drive her to Gold Plate Diner, our favorite place to eat. It was super out of the way and in the territory of our rival school, Crofton Academy, but it had always been her favorite, and now that we had wheels, it wouldn’t be so bad to drive all the way out there. She spent the whole drive running her hands on the interior—the door, the seat, the freaking glove compartment—and murmuring about how nice the material was.
She was still talking about it as we sat over a near-empty plate and milkshakes in the diner two hours later. I thought for sure that she would insist on getting back in the car immediately, but once she realized her current crush—Sam, the wide receiver on Crofton’s football team—was working tonight, we’d decided to hang around.
“I can’t believe your parents gave you a car three days before I’m leaving for the rest of the summer,” she said. She glared at me like it was entirely my fault and I bit back a grin.
“Well, I’m not sure it would have been much help before now,” I pointed out. “You know, since I only had my learner’s permit.”
She huffed and leaned back against the vinyl booth we were sitting in. “Irrelevant. We could have just sat in it and not driven anywhere.”
I laughed softly and dipped a chip in the last of the ketchup that was smeared on the plate. We always got the same thing when we came in here: a chocolate peanut butter milkshake for her, a strawberry one for me, and a plate of chips—or fries as they were known here—to share between us. I popped the chip into my mouth and lanced out the large window beside us. It had still been light out when we left, but now the sun was sinking low into the horizon, turning the sky a deep orange and purple.
“I still can’t believe I have to go to my grandparents’ for a full month,” Zoey groaned. I dragged my eyes away from the sunset and looked at her. She was slouched in her seat now, playing with the straw of her milkshake and staring at something over my shoulder. I didn’t have to look to know she was watching Sam.
“To your grandparents’ beach house,” I reminded her. “And don’t forget there will be, like, a million cute boys there. You should feel bad for the rest of us left behind.”
Rest of us meaning me, since it seemed like I was the only one of our friends without any grand summer plans.
“But you’ll have Dean,” she said teasingly, dragging out his name in that sing-song tone again. “Don’t forget that.”
“I don’thaveDean,” I said. I wiped my hands on my napkin to get the grease and salt off them. “You already know that.”
She raised a brow. “All I know is that you two were totally flirting this afternoon.”
I gaped at her. “We werenot!”
She just stared at me like that proved her point, even though she had to know it was so ridiculously wrong. But then her gaze slid to something outside the window and all the teasing on her face stopped as she sat up straight.
“What?” I asked. When she didn’t answer, I looked outside as well. I couldn’t see anything, so I turned in my seat to see what was far over my shoulder.
“Wait!” Zoey said, grabbing at my arm. “Lavender, don’t...”
But whatever else she said was lost as I realized what she’d been looking at. Dean was remarkably easy to recognize, even in the dark lighting outside, with his shaggy brown hair and varsity jacket. But when I saw who he was talking to—no, who he wasyellingat—I was sure I must have been seeing things.
Zoey might have yelled after me or tried to grab me again, but I wasn’t aware of it at all as I sprinted through the narrow aisles between the tables, aiming for the door. I took a turn too quickly and slammed my hip against a wooden chair, then nearly crashed into an old man at the door. I yelled an apology over my shoulder, or at least I meant to, but I didn’t pause until I was skidding to a stop on the cement outside on the side of the building.
“Hey!” I yelled. If Dean heard me, he didn’t make any sign of it. He was too busy jabbing a finger into my father’s chest.
The lot over here was almost deserted since we were around the side and almost everyone parked up front where there was better lighting. I’d always associated this area with being where fights and drug deals must have happened, but when my eyes slid over to a small batch of parking spots in the dark corner, I realized my dad’s car was there, along with a red one beside it. Standing between the cars was a blonde woman, clutching her phone tight to her chest with a worried look on her face. She looked older than me, but I supposed she could be a university student that Dean knew somehow. That or she just stumbled upon the argument and didn’t want to try to get past them.
