The Way Back Home by Alecia Whitaker

Author:Alecia Whitaker
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction / Family / General (See Also Headings Under Social Issues), Juvenile Fiction / Performing Arts / Music, Juvenile Fiction / Social Issues / New Experience, Juvenile Fiction / Girls & Women
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2016-07-19T07:00:00+00:00

18

“SO HE DROPPED you off last night, and you left it how?” Stella asks a few days later. We’re hanging out at her mom’s apartment in East Nashville, and I’m debriefing her on all the time I’ve spent with Adam lately, going to the movies, eating out, watching TV, just being together like a normal couple. It’s been amazing.

“We left it at, I don’t know,” I say. “At good night.”

“And you’re boyfriend-girlfriend now?” she asks.

“Um, I wouldn’t say that,” I say, shifting in my seat.

“What do you mean? You’re not official?”

“We haven’t really talked about it.”

“Bird!” she says impatiently. “You’ve been inseparable all week and you didn’t DTR?”

“They’ve only been more than friends for a few days,” Shannon says as she joins us on the couch with a big bowl of chips. “Give them a minute to figure it out.”

“Mom,” Stella says dramatically. “This is not their first take, okay? And this go ’round they have already taken it so slow.”

“Well, not everybody locks it down after one kiss,” I say pointedly. “You and Dylan got together and it went from zero to sixty.”

Stella glances at her mom and then shoots me a look, and I realize that as cool as Shannon is, Stella might not want me giving a tell-all interview here.

“I just mean that with Adam and me,” I recover, turning the convo back around, “I think we’re both a little gun-shy. It didn’t work out the first time and now—”

“Now you’re getting a second chance!” Stella interrupts. Then she bats her lashes and adds, “And it’s so convenient for double-dating.”

Shannon smiles. “Well, I’m happy for you both. But the guys should be here soon, and I have work to do. You going to watch the movie in here?”

“Is that okay?” Stella asks.

“Yeah, I’ll close the door.” Shannon gets up and heads to her work space, an amazing little in-home studio that was the inspiration for the one I had built in our new Nashville house.

“Adam was so sweet after the Rolling Stone thing,” I say when I’m alone with Stella again. “I’m still freaking out about what Jase will print.”

“She’s a snake,” Stella says bitterly. “But forget her. The problem at hand is Adam plus Bird equals Adird. Ew. Or Birdam.” I roll my eyes and she giggles. “Okay, well, your names don’t go together but y’all do! I say you lock it down. You were meant for each other.”

“Yeah,” I say with a smile. “I guess there’s really nothing keeping us from being exclusive—”

“Exactly!” she says. “Not like a psycho ex-girlfriend or something.”

I look at her quizzically.

“Whitney’s been tagging Dylan in some throwback Instagram pics lately, and it makes me want to murder somebody.”

“Whitney Jehn?” I ask, shocked. “But she broke up with Dylan forever ago.”

“Well, now his little sister’s famous and he’s on tour,” she says, clearly annoyed. “And the worst part is that she’s making problems in our relationship.”

“How?”

Stella looks at me like I’m stupid. “Um, maybe because I’ve acted crazy jealous about it, like, twice now, which makes me even madder because that is so not me.

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