“OK,” she replied, walking over and pushing the door open.
I cocked an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving with you.”
She said it so matter-of-factly, as if it was common sense. If I was leaving, of course she was going, too. Obviously.
“No, you’re not. You aren’t the type of person to ditch school,” I replied.
“Well, that’s changing today. Come on, we can go to my place. No one’s home right now, and I can help clean up your face.”
“Look, Shay, I don’t want to be dramatic—”
“Then don’t.”
“What?”
“Don’t be dramatic. Just let me do this today, Landon. I’m sure you were going to go home to your empty house and sit around on your own and be sad, and sure, you can do that later, but right now you shouldn’t be alone. So come on.”
She began walking away, and she gave me no choice. Besides, a part of me knew that wherever she led, I wanted to follow.
We went to my car, and I handed her the keys to drive. My mind wasn’t able to focus enough on the road, and I knew the keys would be safest in her grip.
That was until she got behind the wheel and started jerking it back and forth like a psychopath.
“Geez, Chick, I can do without the heart attack.”
“Well, you should drive an automatic car like a regular person, not a stick.”
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 go wide, like they were going to shoot out of her face, and she quickly pulled over.
“OK, OK, 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 understand her the way she was so effortlessly good at understanding 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. 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 toher. I didn’t have enough thoughts to fill up one notebook, let alone dozens.