FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS OF THE CHEATER.FAKER.TROUBLEMAKER SERIES (WATTY'S 2016, FICTION AWARDS 2016, HACHETTE AUDIO 2017), JENNY ROSEN & KRISTEN MAGLONZO.
After bullies, braces, and brutal heartbreak shatters his faith in love, soon-to-be fre...
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CHAPTER 37
Lacey
It takes exactly two weeks, fourteen days, and three-hundred and thirty-six hours for a person to disappear.
I know because I've been watching it happen.
The Elias King who stood on the beach with me two Fridays ago went missing after that night.
I don't know what caused the change or what exactly transformed the boy who almost kissed me into an almost stranger.
But here we are. Not talking. Not texting. Not doing any of the things I thought we'd be doing two weeks after that night.
It's six o'clock on another Friday, and I'm too caught up in my own thoughts to focus on my volunteering. I've spent the last forty-five minutes struggling to finish a tragically slow game of checkers with Mr. Parsons—Shoreline nursing home's least talkative and least friendly resident.
The man's got the personality of a stone and probably wouldn't smile if his life depended on it. He's famous in our church circle for randomly lashing out at volunteers. He's yelled at a handful of us in the past for "talking at him too much" and "not knowing our place", but I know mine.
When I walked into the games room this afternoon, I had no plans to talk to him or anyone else for that matter.
To be honest, I didn't want to come here today. My mind's been all over the place. So much so that I can't mentally handle small talk or pointless conversations because they only remind me of the important conversations I'm not having—
—with Lucas.
Or Elias.
Or Elias.
Spring Formal's in less than twenty-four hours, I haven't given Lucas an answer, and Elias hasn't addressed my dance invitation since we last spoke. He actually hasn't addressed anything at all which is—odd.
At school, we act like strangers.
Sometimes, I see glimpses of him in the halls. He's always surrounded by people. Pretty girls and popular guys—the same ones who were whispering about him when he wasn't at school. Occasionally, when we do cross paths, there are moments where I think I'll catch him staring. But then I blink and his gaze is gone. Fixed somewhere else. On someone else.
Like he never saw me at all.
The thing is, it's not like I need him to hang out with me like we're best friends because I know we're not. It's just—I don't exactly know what we are either.
