Chapter 2
When I got home, the living room lights were still on.
Mom waited on the couch with an untouched glass of lemonade beside her.
When she saw me drenched, Mom went pale. "Were you not supposed to be at the beach?"
My shoes left a long trail of water on the floor as I walked in.
I said, "I just did not feel like going."
My mom paused while reaching for a towel, then didn't ask anything else.
She knew me inside out. When I didn't want to talk, my lips were sealed tighter than a locked door.
After my shower, I saw Ryan had called seventeen times.
Emily had sent me a ton of messages, too.
Emily wrote: [Sophie, do not misunderstand. I just get terrible motion sickness.]
Her next message read: [Ryan said you have always been strong, so you will be fine.]
Then Emily asked: [Are you upset because I sat in front? I was not trying to take your place.]
The last one was a voice message.
When I played it, her tearful voice said: [Sophie, please do not put Ryan in a difficult position. We finally graduated. Do not ruin the trip because of me.]
I dragged my finger up the screen, slowly scrolling through the messages.
Three months ago, Emily said she wanted to go to the same college as us.
Ryan snatched my application form and, with a red pen, circled a regular local college.
He said, "Emily's grades are shaky. If you stay here with her, I'll feel better heading out of town."
I asked, "So what about me?"
He grinned and pinched my cheek. "You're so smart, you'll do great anywhere."
But the school I wanted was up north.
The cutoff was extremely high. I'd worked toward it for three years, with sticky notes bearing the school's name covering the corner of my desk.
When Emily saw them, her eyes turned red and she said, "If you leave, Sophie, I'll have no one left."
Ryan was silent for half a minute before turning to me. "It's just a school. Don't make it all about yourself."
That night, for the first time ever, I locked my college application draft away in the drawer.
The drawer key still hangs beneath my desk lamp.
The rain outside was coming down hard.
I opened my laptop, logged into the mock application portal, and restored my dream school to the top choice.
Just as the save button popped up, Ryan's call came through again.
As soon as I answered, Ryan practically barked, "Sophia, did you seriously ask Daniel to come pick you up?"
My hand froze on the mouse.
"How did you know?" I asked, a bit thrown off.
Ryan let out a cold laugh. "The whole class group chat is blowing up. Everyone's saying you went home with him in the middle of the night. Was that on purpose, Sophia?"
Messages kept popping up in the group chat.
Someone dropped a pic taken outside the convenience store.
Daniel was holding the umbrella for me in the rain, and I stood next to him, head down.
Emily jumped in: [Sophie was probably just freaked out. Guys, don't start rumors.]
Right below that, Ryan just sent a single dot.
Then, a private message from Ryan popped up.
Ryan messaged privately: [Explain in the group now. Say Daniel was only passing by.]
His order crushed whatever little bit of hurt I had left in my chest.
I shot back, "Care to explain why you left me behind at the rest stop?"
Ryan went quiet for a couple seconds, then his voice dropped. "Are you really gonna make a big deal out of this?"
"Yeah," I said.
Ryan's breath hitched on the other end.
"Sophia, your attitude's really something lately. Emily cried until her stomach hurt, and I haven't even given you a hard time about it," he said.
My mom knocked on the door.
She entered with a glass of lemonade. When she heard Ryan, her expression darkened.
I put the call on speaker.
Ryan kept going, "You better show up tomorrow. Everyone's already booked the boat tickets. If you don't come, I'm not refunding a cent."
Mom set the glass down on the table and said coldly, "Ryan, you left my daughter stranded at a highway rest stop, and now you have the nerve to talk about ticket money?"
There was a long silence on the other end.
After a few seconds, Ryan sounded awkward. "Mrs. Winston, that's not what I meant. Sophia's just being too sensitive."
My mom's hands were shaking with anger.
I reached out to steady her, then said calmly, "Keep the ticket money. I'll consider it money thrown to a dog."
The call ended.
Suddenly, a video popped up in the group chat.
In the video, Emily was sitting out on the B&B's balcony, Ryan's jacket draped over her shoulders as she blew out the candles.
Ryan slid the cake in front of her, grinning. "Making up for your eighteenth birthday. No more tears, alright?"
Funny thing is, today was my eighteenth birthday, too.