Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Yanking and tugging, she fought with the zipper on her backpack. “Bullshit. Don’t feed me that crap. You didn’t even care enough to say goodbye last year and left me sitting here all damn night.” Hoisting her bag onto her back, she started past me.
I stepped in front of her, blocking her path. “That’s not what happened. I tried—”
“I don’t care!” She craned her head back. “Get out of my way.”
“Not until you listen to me.”
“I don’t want to listen to you, okay? It’s not a big deal. Just because we tolerated each other last summer doesn’t mean we have to do it again this year.”
I flinched as her words slammed into me with the force of a sledgehammer. We tolerated each other? What the hell was that? She was my best friend. I'd been busting my ass day and night all year to make sure my parents would let me come back to Clovert. But apparently, she’d only been tolerating me.
I could barely speak with the knife hanging from my back. “Why are you acting like this?”
“Move, Cam. I don’t give a damn if you do look seventeen now. All it’ll take is one kick to the balls for me to drop you.”
That kick would have hurt less, but I stepped out of her way.
“You can have tomorrow, but fifty worms only. Got it?” She stomped to the container I’d dug into the ground all those months ago and pulled out a plastic baggy with something inside.
My eyes narrowed on the shake of her hand as she struggled to get the baggie into her pocket. Every time she’d get part of it in, the air inside would redistribute and cause a bubble that forced it right back out. I could see some numbers written on the piece of paper that could have been a phone number, but why was it in the container we used for worms?
“What is that?” I asked.
“Did you hear me? Fifty worms. The rest are mine. You may have hatched this plan, but I’ve been running it since you vanished without so much as a ‘see you later.’ So don’t you dare think you’re going to screw me over by turning in a week’s worth all in one day.” She pulled the baggie out and switched it to the other side as if that pocket might be bigger.
It wasn’t, but all her frenzied twisting and tucking allowed me to see one word written on the paper in big, black letters.
Camden.
As if the universe had finally decided to stop torturing me and throw a little luck my way, she dropped the baggie in the next blink.
I dove after it, not one clue what was inside. But without anything left to lose, I snatched it up.
“Hey!” she shouted. “Give that back.”
“Then tell me what it is.”
“None of your business!” She jumped, trying to grab it, but it was a wasted effort. I had her in height by at least six inches.
“Then why does it have my name on it?”
She started tugging on my arm, her whole front becoming flush with my side in the scramble. “Damn it, Cam. Give it back.”
The fact that she was freaking out only made me that much more curious.
The other facts that she was gorgeous and touching me didn’t exactly hurt, either.
Careful to keep it out of her reach, I opened it and pulled out a folded-up sheet of notebook paper. Using me for leverage and channeling her inner Michael Jordan, she almost ripped it out of my hands twice, but I was able to read it before she finally snatched it away.
Camden,
I don’t know what happened or what I did to make you leave without saying goodbye, but I’m sorry. Okay? If you’d just come back, I’ll fix it. I swear. If you get this and I’m not here, call me at Thea’s house or maybe just write a letter with your address so we can talk.
Nora
At the bottom was a phone number and a street address, both of which would have been really helpful over the last nine months. However, it was the pure desperation on that page that made my stomach sink.
“You didn’t do anything to make me leave. You know that, right?”
“Ugh,” she growled, tearing the note into a tiny pile of confetti at my feet.
“Nora,” I breathed, inching forward until I was hovering over her. “Look at me.”
She shook her head and continued shredding any proof that remained on the paper. “You shouldn’t have read that.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I should have read it nine months ago. And I swear to you, if I’d known you’d left it for me, I would have done just about anything to get it just so I’d have a way to contact you again.”
Suddenly, her hands landed on my chest, giving me a hard shove and sending me stumbling back. “Then why didn’t you?”