“Piper,” I said as I walked into the empty coffee shop north of the square.
“Well, look who it is,” she said with one hand cocked on her hip. She shot me a curious look, like she knew something was up.
Piper had been my best friend since we were in kindergarten. She knew me better than anyone else, even Luke, and I her. She was like a sister to me even though we couldn’t have looked any more different. I had a tan skin, golden hazel eyes, and long, dark hair. She was as pale as the moon with natural, platinum blonde hair, a sprinkling of freckles, and the biggest baby blues this side of Rock River.
“I’m so glad this place is empty because I have a lot to tell you,” I said excitedly as I took a seat up at the counter.
“Want something to drink?” she asked. “On the house.”
“Iced mocha,” I replied. “Nonfat.”
She began whipping up my gratis drink, like the good friend she was, as I tried to figure out where to begin.
“If I tell you this, you cannot repeat it to anyone,” I prefaced my information. “I mean it, Piper.”
She glanced up at me from the other side of the counter, hungry for the information I was about to spill. A curious smile cracked over her lips.
“I swear,” she said. “What is it?”
“Hudson Smith showed up at the diner last night at the end of my shift,” I said as I bit my lip and waited for her reaction.
“Oh, my god,” she said as she sat my iced mocha in front of me and threw a straw down. “Continue.”
“He wanted to hang out,” I said. “We drove around Rock River. I gave him a little tour. Then we went back to his hotel room.”
Piper slapped her hand down on the counter before covering her mouth. “Don’t tell me you...”
“You cannot tell anyone, Piper,” I said before I gave her my full answer.
“I won’t, I won’t,” she promised.
“Yes, we slept together,” I said. I hung my head in shame, though on the inside I was still happily reeling. “It wasn’t planned, it just sort of happened.”
“Wow,” she said. “I never thought I’d see the day.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Luke has been your world for a long time,” she said. “It’s just weird hearing you talk about someone else like that.”
“I know, I know,” I said as I buried my face in my hands and sighed. “That’s why I need to talk to you.”
“Okay?”
“Hudson thinks I need to experience other people,” I continued. “Or at least a life outside of Rock River.”
“Why would you ever want to leave Rock River?” Piper asked. She was just as accustomed to this life in a bubble as I was.
“He just said a lot of things that made me think,” I said. “And they all sounded good at the time. They made sense. But now I just think maybe I made a mistake.”
“Why do you think you made a mistake exactly?”
“Hudson is a freaking movie star. I’m a nobody from the middle of nowhere,” I explained. “This thing with him just isn’t realistic. My feelings for Luke, those are real. I can’t throw away a potential future with Luke all for some fantasy.”
Piper leaned over on the counter and sighed before hanging her head down.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” she said. “Except that I think you should come clean to Luke. I’ve never seen him so upset. He really didn’t want you going to Hudson’s hotel room.”
“Then he should’ve said something,” I argued, though the argument wasn’t between Piper and me.
“You know how he is,” she said. “I think you should be honest with him. Tell him what happened.”
“I was afraid you’d say that,” I said with a sigh.
“Give him a chance to tell you how he really feels,” Piper replied. “Maybe this will finally get him to admit how he really feels?”
“Do you know something I don’t? Have you talked to him?” I asked.
“Oh, no,” she said. “Not like in depth or anything.”
“When did you talk to him?” I asked. I knew we were all friends, but I never knew those two to talk to each other without me around. I was sort of the glue that held the group together. Piper and Luke were like oil and water sometimes.
“He stopped in here the other day to get a drink,” she said.
“He doesn’t drink coffee,” I said. I hated how accusatory I sounded, but what she was saying wasn’t really adding up.
“Okay, then he drank tea. I don’t remember,” Piper said. She was getting defensive.
“He loves tea,” I said. “Maybe I should bring a big glass of sweet tea out to the field today as some sort of peace offering?”
“You could do that,” she replied as she reached for a large plastic cup and filled it with some freshly brewed raspberry tea. How’d she know that was his favorite?
“I’ll just come clean now,” I said. “No sense in waiting. Either he’ll stay mad at me or he’ll finally admit how he really feels.”
“I think you’re making the right choice,” Piper said as she handed me Luke’s tea.
“Here goes nothing,” I said as I walked out.