Had it really been that loud in the diner?
Keira already had the phone to her ear and an apology on her lips.
“Wh-where were you?” The hitch in Susan’s voice was unmistakably the sound of hard crying and a lot of it.
“I was . . . ” Keira stopped. She’d been about to say out with Walker, but a sudden foreboding stopped the words before they could leave her mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear my phone. What happened?”
“Tommy broke up with me.”
“He what? Why?”
“After you left the caf, we went out to his car to talk. He was pissed about the way you treated Jeremy at lunch.”
“Huh? Are you kidding? He dumped you because I didn’t play nice with Jeremy?” Keira sank onto the couch.
“Not exactly. It’s more that I stuck up for you today, and at the store, too, when they got you in trouble with Mr. Seever. He said the way I kept taking your side instead of his made him realize he needed to find someone who—and I quote—‘is interested in being part of my life.’ ”
“He . . . what? Is he serious?”
Susan let out a choked sob.
Keira got up, too full of anger to sit there and do nothing.
“So, do you think he’s really an asshole and he’s managed to hide it all this time, or do you think it’s a quality he’s just now developed?” Keira practically spat the words into the phone.
“He’s not an asshole. I mean, he’s right, in a way.”
“Breaking up with you because you are friends with me and I don’t want to go out with Jeremy is not ‘right.’ ”
Susan sighed defeatedly.
Keira squeezed her eyes shut. “Look, there are lots of guys out there. Great guys who will want to date you in spite of the fact that you’re friends with me.”
“I’m not blaming this on you!”
“I know you’re not. Dammit, I’m trying to make you feel better.”
“Yeah.” Susan sniffed. “Listen, I’ve gotta go. I think I’m getting a migraine. I need to take something and go to bed.”
It seemed like everything that came out of Keira’s mouth made things worse. “Okay,” she said finally. “I’ll keep my phone on the piano. Call me if you need me.”
“I will. Thanks.”
Keira scuffed over to the piano and dropped her phone next to her on the bench. She was already late in starting her practice on account of going out with Walker, but now she was doubly late and doubly distracted.
Professionals play through distractions all the time, she reminded herself sternly. With a sharp exhale, she put her fingertips on the smooth keys and ran her fingers across them in a perfect, chiming scale. The mindless rote soothed her, as she hit the patterns of flats and sharps.
Still, as the night wore on, she lost track of how many times she picked up her fingers in the middle of a movement, thinking she’d heard the first mechanized note of her phone’s ringtone, but it never actually rang.
Susan never called.
? ? ?
The chime of an incoming message woke Keira the next morning. She’d fallen asleep without even unzipping her backpack full of homework.
Dammit. Maybe she could get her English assignment done in homeroom, and finish her math problems at lunch. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she dug her phone out from under her pillow.
Pick you up in 30?
Susan.
Wondering how she’d gotten her parents to give her back the car, Keira texted back a resounding “yes, please!” and rushed into the bathroom to shower.
Thirty-two minutes later, with a peanut butter sandwich in hand and her hair still wet, Keira climbed into Susan’s Toyota.
Susan’s eyes were swollen and her cheeks were blotchy. She’d pulled on a baseball cap, but her normally silky-straight hair looked stringy where it spilled out beneath it.
“Hey. You never called last night. I was worried,” Keira said.
“Sorry. My mother took my cell phone. She said the ‘waves’ from it were making my migraine worse. Can you imagine? I think she really just wanted to see if Tommy would call me or if I was telling the truth and we’d actually broken up.”
“And?”
Susan threw the car into reverse with a little too much enthusiasm.
“Nope. Why do you think I got the car back?” Susan’s voice was harsh. “They don’t give a shit where I go as long as I’m not out with a guy. Like I couldn’t lie to them if I wanted to. Like I couldn’t sneak off to the bathroom at school and do it during homeroom like Missy Bridwell and her boyfriend.”
Now Keira really couldn’t swallow her sandwich. “What? Are you—”
“I’m just being pissy. I never slept with Tommy. Jesus. Don’t you think I would have told you if we had?”
“Sorry. No, I get it.” Keira looked down at her sandwich. “Do you want part of this?”
Susan shook her head, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel. “My stomach’s still gross from the Imitrex I took last night.” She wrapped her fingers tightly around the wheel, trying to get a grip in more ways than one.