I Wish You Wouldn't by Alex Ritany

Author:Alex Ritany [Ritany, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: road trip, LGBT, mlm, mlm romance, YA romance
Publisher: Alex Ritany
Published: 2024-08-06T22:00:00+00:00

26. A NOT SO SHOCKING TURN OF EVENTS

We stop in White Rock for ice cream.

I attempt a round of Go Fish! with Warren, but he abandons the game in the middle because Nat finds a heron’s nest and apparently that’s more interesting.

The whole time, I can’t stop looking at the ocean. It’s unbelievable to me that some people live here and get to see this view all the time. I yank a napkin, bother Payton for a pencil, then try to go about capturing the hugeness of the landscape in front of me. I’ve always been good at perspective, but there’s no way to represent the vast open sky and the way the water seems to go on forever.

Or at least, not on a paper napkin.

“Draw me,” Aman says from across the picnic table.

“No.”

“I know you’re capable. You’re good at faces.”

I don’t say it’s not about capability. Ears burning, I shake my head.

Mercifully, he doesn’t press the issue.

It’s mortifying that I could draw Aman without a reference without stopping to think. Maybe after tomorrow, I will.

His expression mirrors how I feel. Mouth turned downward, brows knitted together. Glancing at his phone every ten seconds. Restless. Troubled.

All I want is to ask what’s bothering him. Then, at the same time, I don’t want to know. Maybe Connor-to-the-left wouldn’t want to ask, and wouldn’t want to fix it.

His phone rings, and he springs to answer it like it’s on fire. “Hello?”

When I try to catch his eye, he stands up, phone pressed to his ear, and walks away.

Payton gives me a look. It’s the sort of look that says I know everything about you.

I square my jaw. “Don’t.”

“I wasn’t going to.” She glowers. “You’re doing just fine on your own.”

It doesn’t sound like she thinks that’s a good thing.

Aimlessly, I kick at the picnic table leg.

Maybe it’s good. At least if Aman’s gone, I won’t have to be constantly paying attention to where he is around me, what stupid question he’s going to ask me next, what I’m going to snark back to make him laugh.

Fuck.

I take out the deck of cards and shuffle it through once, twice, three times.

Warren and Nat return, speaking low, heads bent together. They’re close enough their elbows almost touch, and at something Nat says, Warren smiles so wide it seems painful, tracking every millisecond of the way her expression changes as she bends down to pick up a seashell.

All at once, it’s undeniable. No longer if, but when. I wonder when it happened. I haven’t been watching for it. I’ve been distracted.

The distraction in question walks back toward us, still frowning.

“Who was that?” Payton asks.

Aman leans on the edge of the picnic table, brows furrowed. “My aunt.”

Slowly, I spread the playing cards out in front of me.

“Making arrangements for tomorrow?” Nat asks.

Aman straightens and folds his arms. “Actually, I...”

We all wait.

Keeping my eyes trained on the playing cards spread out in front of me, I try to pretend like I don’t care what he’s about to say.

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