Buried secrets, two girls with the same face, and a boy who loved too much.
***
When Travis and Nicole meet on a bus for the first time, he thinks she's his ex, Rachel, who broke his heart two years ago. But he doesn't understand why she's pretendin...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"TRAVIS?"
"Chipmunk?"
We were standing in front of my locker. It was basketball season, and Luke would be coming to get me to practice any second from now.
"There's something I need to tell you," Rachel whispered, a desperation lacing her tone.
Usually, she reminded me to not call her Chipmunk, but now she didn't. Something was off.
Alert, I stuffed my things inside the locker and shut it with a bang. My brows furrowed with concern at her nervous look.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She took a nervous breath. "It's just... there's this thing I've been meaning to tell you. I don't even know if this is the right place to do this, but I've been trying to gather some nerve-"
I placed both hands on her shoulders, and she started so badly she jumped. "Hey, calm down. Deep breaths. In and out. Yeah. Good. Now, tell me."
She hesitated, nibbling her lip.
"You know you can tell me anything, don't you?"
"I know. It's just-"
"Yo, Travis!" Luke's voice boomed across the hallway. "You coming or what?"
"Give me a minute, please!"
"Hurry. You know how cranky the seniors get when we're late."
Rachel looked at Luke, dressed in his jersey, then back at me.
"It's fine. I'm actually fine. Just got anxious for a minute, haha. Don't worry about me. Forget about this—"
"Rachel—"
"I promise. It's nothing."
"You're lying. Your nose is red, and you're—"
"See you tonight?" She was already backing away. "I'll hang out with Lawrinda after school and—"
"Rachel, please—"
"Love you!"She blew me a kiss and dashed off.
***
From the moment I'd confronted Raine Perkins, I'd never stopped racking my brains for hints, memories, or anything I might've missed.
The annoying part? I was still not getting anything.
As I sat in my last lecture for the day, the memory of the time when Rachel had tried talking to me in front of my locker when she was a sophomore and I, a junior, had resurfaced, but I couldn't really deduce anything from it.
