No Place Like Homecoming, Dallen, Maggie [beach read book .TXT] 📗

Someone said something to him that I couldn’t make out. It was a girl’s voice, but between the noises around me on the street and the music playing in the background on his end, the words were indecipherable. But I could guess what the girl said because his smile shifted. It looked way more forced. “You still think you’ll be back in time for homecoming?”

My smile froze. “Yeah. Of course.”

“Because Taylor said your parents cut you off, so—”

“I’ll be there.” My voice was too sharp, my tone too brusque.

He nodded. “Look, I’d better go. It’s getting loud in here.”

And before I knew it, he was hanging up. And I had the horrible feeling that nothing was resolved. Did he believe me that I’d be back? Would he wait?

I cursed Taylor for telling Logan about my mishap with the credit card, and then I cursed myself for ever having told her in the first place. Taylor and I had been friends for years. I knew better than anyone that she could never resist sharing gossip. If it was newsworthy to anyone, she’d be the first to spill.

For a second, I almost let the dread win. This anxious pit threatened to swallow me whole, and I almost let it.

Almost.

But I’d been battling this sensation my whole life and it wasn’t about to win now. I straightened my shoulders. I drew a deep breath.

I ignored the stares of an older couple walking past, and resisted the urge to snap at them. What, you’ve never seen Dorothy fight off a panic attack before?

I could do this. Nothing would stop me. Nothing. I would fight and I would win, and in two weeks’ time, I would be on Logan’s arm with a freakin’ tiara on my head.

I heard a door slam open and saw Flynn and some other guy carrying a giant trash bin out the side door of that restaurant the older couple had just walked into.

I would get back home in time for homecoming...and I knew just how I’d do it.

Seven

Flynn

The garbage bin landed on the ground with a thud, and Roman wiped his hands off on his apron. “Dude, don’t look now, but Dorothy is staring at you.”

“Dorothy?” I echoed, but even as I did, I knew exactly who he was referring to.

I felt her eyes on me before I turned and spotted her. A laugh caught in my chest at the sight before me. Dorothy. Roman hadn’t been wrong. Isla was all decked out and looking utterly absurd with her old-fashioned dress and ruby slippers.

But then her gaze clashed with mine, and the urge to laugh straight-up died. For a second there, she wasn’t smiling and she wasn’t sneering. She was just…looking at me. She was looking right at me.

And I couldn’t breathe.

“Dude, you all right?” Roman asked.

He was a year older than me and had graduated the year before. Lucky bastard. Life would be a whole heck of a lot easier if I’d graduated already. If I wasn’t trying to juggle school and work and...for what? So I could drop out in a few weeks?

I should just quit school now and be done with it. The fact that I hadn’t was just stupid. I was going through the motions as if any of it would do any good. Like some miracle might happen and save my family and my hopes of graduating along with the rest of my class.

“Are you guys, like...having a staring contest?” Roman sounded confused, and I didn’t blame him.

I had no idea what was going through Isla’s head, but her stare seemed to be weighing me down. Making me doubt everything I thought I knew. I couldn’t tell if this weight was grounding me or crushing me. All I knew was…

I had to look away.

I was the first to break the moment, and I turned to look at Roman, who was eyeing the two of us like we were in the midst of a tennis tournament. “I’ll be back in a sec.”

“Yeah, sure. Take your time.”

I was already crossing the alley, heading to the sidewalk where she was standing. I watched her blink a few times. Watched her chest rise and fall as she took a deep breath.

Something wasn’t right. Her confidence was gone. That crazy bravado that I hated and maybe also kinda loved just a little was nowhere to be found.

When I got closer, I saw the gleam in her eyes but it wasn’t that normal passion that she seemed to have. Instead it was something that set me on edge on her behalf.

It was...desperation.

Crap. What was going on with this girl to make her look like this? As I got even closer, I saw that look in her eyes shift again.

Everything about her changed in a heartbeat.

Gone was that brittle desperation and in its place was something...wrong. Off. So false it made my jaw clench.

“Hey you,” she said, a teasing, flirtatious note in her voice that was so at odds with every other time she’d spoken to me, I immediately was on my guard.

“What are you doing out here?” I asked.

She tucked her phone into the pocket of her apron-dress thing and beamed up at me. “Looking for you.”

My brows came down in a frown. “Why?”

“Why not?” She moved closer until she was way too close. The scent of her shampoo surrounded me, and the ridiculously wide skirt brushed against my legs.

“Why were you looking for me?” I asked again.

Her smile faltered. Good. Something about this smile made my chest tighten and my skull feel like it was being hammered.

It was wrong.

I didn’t trust it, but most of all I didn’t like that it made me worry about her.

I couldn’t take care of anyone else. My hands were full with my mom and little brothers. I took a step back. “Look, whatever you’re up to, I want no part of it.”

She pouted. “I just wanted to make sure I returned your copy of Catcher in the Rye, that’s all.”

“Uh huh.” I