Page 30 of Give My Everything
“I’ll see you Wednesday,” she finally says, her voice a whisper of what it was a moment ago.
She opens her car door, which I catch at the top and keep open for her, and then she yanks it shut with enough force to echo down the street.
It’s so…Remmy. A whisper and a slam. Melancholy mixed with anger. She’s equal parts soft and dark.
I don’t like it. It hints at something I don’t understand, at something deeper that I’m not meant to know.
And the last thing I need to do is start to truly care.
So I take a step back and let Remmy pull out of my driveway then speed down the block.
I chuckle to myself. Maybe that car isn’t her brother’s after all.
CHAPTER6
BEN
It’s rare for me to feel speechless. I’m usually full of shit to say and very opinionated, which is why my inability to say anything feels so out of character.
I should just blame the pregnancy hormones. It seems like everything is this little swimmie’s fault anyway. What’s another thing to lump into the mix?
I feel like an emotional pendulum, swinging back and forth at the drop of a hat, at every little word or comment. Overwhelmingly happy and then bursting into tears. Laughing hysterically and then getting incredibly angry. Talking someone’s ear off and then having nothing to say.
Like now.
I thought I’d take some ‘me time’ this morning, get out of the house and grab some new paint supplies, maybe find a way to deal with everything going on inside of my mind in a way that’s more constructive than moping around my parents’ massive estate.
Not once did it occur to me that I’d bump into anyone I know as I’m stepping away from the checkout counter with a big bag of new canvases and acrylics.
Especially not Paige Andrews. Lucas’ best friend.
Standing across the room from her makes me feel like my tongue has been removed.
When I met her for the first time, it was right after my family moved to Hermosa Beach. Paige, Lucas, Lennon, and Wyatt were this little quad of friends who had known each other for what felt like forever. It was long enough that letting in a new friend to their group took a while. It was mostly Paige, actually, who pushed to invite me to things and tried to make me feel like a part of the group.
Then we moved away, to my family’s property in Colombia for a summer while my dad stayed in California. I didn’t know it back then, but my parents were considering a divorce, which is like, theleastColombian thing you can do.
I loved the expanse of land on my grandfather’sfinca,the farmland that stretched as far as my eyes could see, especially the rows and rows of avocado trees on the southeast corner, near the small homes that the staff lived in.
I spent weeks lounging by the pool and riding horses, wandering the property trying to practice my horribly rusty Spanish with anyone who would appease me. I took the car into the city a few times a week and went shopping, exploring the plazas and museums. I even hiked a few times, enjoying nature in a way that just isn’t encouraged in America.
Most of that summer was wonderful, and I fell in love with Medellín in a way I hadn’t been expecting when my mom first whisked me out of the country.
But by the time we finally moved back and my parents had decided to give their marriage another chance, a lot had changed.
Ihad changed. In painful and immeasurable ways.
But also in ways that gained Lucas’ attention, which is exactly what I’d wanted when we were younger.
Paige wasn’t as friendly the second time around, and I always assumed it was because she had a thing for Lucas that was unrequited and she resented me for it.
Maybe now that things between Lucas and me are over, she can move on to hating Lennon instead of me.
“Oh my god. Remmy?”
Paige’s voice breaks through my trip down memory lane, and I do what I’m supposed to do.
I smile and pretend nothing is wrong.
