I’d drifted off, my head resting against the window. I hadn’t a clue how long I’d been out, but when I finally became aware, Kai and Ezra were arguing.
“Shh! You’re gonna wake her, dumb ass,” Ezra said.
“You’re transparent, dude,” Kai said quietly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Kai.”
Kai snickered under his breath. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Best be honest with yourself before you do something to ruin it.”
“Whatever,” Ezra answered.
I wasn’t supposed to hear this, but I didn’t want to embarrass Ezra so I shifted my body a little to let them think I was just coming to. They stopped talking so I sat up, stretching my arms above my body then rubbing the goosebumps on my legs.
“Cold,” I said, my voice scratchy from sleep.
“Here,” Ezra said, reaching behind my seat and pulling up a reversible sherpa throw, the plush side a dark purple velvet.
I took it from him and ran my hands over it. “This is incredible,” I said, bringing the velvet to my face and running the fabric over my skin. I removed my lace-up boots, kicked them to the car floorboards, and unfolded the throw, covering myself in the luxurious feel. I giddily snuggled in with a sigh.
My face grew warm when I noticed both boys staring at me as if I’d grown two heads. “I-uh, I like the feel of fabrics and textures.” I cleared my throat. “Thanks for the blanket.”
Ezra shifted in his seat as if he was uncomfortable that I’d thanked him, which I found strange. “No problem,” he said.
I laid my head on the back of my seat and caught Kai from the corner of my eye forming a finger gun and pointing it to his temple, pulling the imaginary trigger, all the while smiling at Ezra, but Ezra didn’t react save for the slightest tick in his jaw. I wished I’d known what was going on between them.
“What time is it?” I asked, yawning.
Ezra’s definitive smirk made an appearance and I made a mental note to memorize it. I couldn’t believe I was riding in a car with this guy. I’d grown up with Ezra, yeah, but although Ezra had been cool with every clique at Endicott, he was still untouchable. He touched others, but no one could really reach him the same way.
At his peak, Ezra was phenomenal. His lacrosse was on point, earning him a scholarship. He was intelligent, as evidenced by a stellar GPA, but Ezra wasn’t just smart, he was also wise. Common sense was a theme in so many of his answers during open forums in class. His girlfriend, Jessica West, was the ideal—her tall statuesque figure, brilliant almost coppery brown eyes, and hair to match. Ezra loved her, anyone who watched them for even ten minutes could have figured that out. He looked at her with a devotion I would have killed for. At times he didn’t seem real.
“It’s eleven in the morning,” Kai remarked, staring down at his phone, texting someone. I nodded my thank you, drinking in the qualities that made up Ezra Brandon.
I pulled down the vanity mirror above me and checked myself quickly. No, I could never compare to Jessica West. We were different types of pretty. She was classically so, while I was defined by something entirely different. I pushed the mirror back into place and laid my head down once more.
Ezra ran a hand up and down his upper thigh, cringing at the obvious pain there, but continuing nonetheless.
“Does it hurt?” I asked him.
He peered over at me. “Yes,” he said succinctly.
“I’m sorry,” I told him and meant it.
Over that Christmas break, he had broken both legs in the accident and, as you know, he changed. He had grueling physical therapy for weeks while coming to school in a wheelchair. All of us thought his change in attitude and personality would adjust as he improved, but it did nothing of the sort. He’d grown dangerously introverted, in an unhealthy way. It wasn’t unkind, just unavailable. Eventually no one tried to get his attention or his friendship anymore. Eventually people forgot about Ezra Brandon. Eventually everyone did. Except for me.
“Pull over,” Kai said, “you need to stretch your legs, walk a little.”
Ezra didn’t respond but found the nearest exit and pulled into a gas station. He pulled next to a pump and turned off the engine. I hopped out of the car and let Kai out. All three of us stretched. We’d been driving for four hours without stopping.
Ezra went to the pump and started to fill his tank as Kai stalked off inside the store. I walked over to Ezra and leaned against the back of the GTO.
“What does it take to fill this thing?” I asked.
“Why?” he asked defensively.
“’Cause I’m kicking in some cash, yo.”
“Uh, no, you’re not.”
I stood up. “What?” I asked, outraged. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t take money from girls.”
“What in the heck are you talking about? I asked you if I could hitch a ride, remember?”
“Exactly. I was going this direction anyway,” he said, his smirk making yet another appearance.
“Uh, Ezra, that’s cool as crap that you’re offering, but I would feel like absolute crud if you didn’t let me cover my half.”
Ezra rested his backside on the fender of the car, his right hand clenched on the pump handle, his left grabbed at his right shoulder, the muscles straining under the cuff of his T-shirt, and turned his head toward me. His eyes grazed me from my boots, crawled up my legs, cutoffs, and halter, before stopping on my face. The action made my skin heat to an unnatural warmth, my toes curl in my boots, and my stomach churn with butterflies.
“No,” he said.
I shook my head. “Is it because you think I’m poor?” I asked. He laughed, incensing me. “Listen, I got a job explicitly over the summer to help with my share, dude. Let me do this.”
“Uh, no. Not happening, Jupiter Corey,” he said. His using my name like that felt strange to me for some reason, a little intimate. Stupid, but it did.
“That’s insulting,” I told him, stomping over to the passenger side. I got in and swung the door closed.
Ezra shoved the pump handle into the pump, replaced the cap, and got in beside me. “It’s not,” he insisted, starting the engine.
My blood boiled. “It is, Ezra! I’m not a damn charity case!”
“I wasn’t saying you were,” he insisted, peeling out of the gas station.
“Then let me pitch in!”
“I can’t, okay? I just can’t.”
“You are infuriating!” I said, as we entered the on-ramp to the highway.
“Listen, I would feel like shit taking money from any girl, okay?” he said, checking his blind spot as we got on the highway. “It hurts my pride, all right? Just stop arguing with me, damn it!”
I huffed in my seat, crossing my arms over my chest, peeved he was acting so chauvinistic. I turned to get Kai’s opinion, but he wasn’t there. I idiotically searched the floor behind my seat as if a six-foot guy could have hidden there.
“Kai! We forgot Kai!”
Ezra whipped his head toward the back bench. “Shit!” he said, cutting across two lanes to exit and turn around.
“Jeez Louise, Ezra!” I yelled, my hand grasping the dash and the back of his seat to brace myself. “You’re crazy!”
He looked me dead in the eyes as he shifted gear. “You’ve no idea.”
I rolled my eyes at him just as his phone rang. He answered it. “Yeah, sorry, dude. I’ll be right there.” He hung up and dropped it in the space between our seats.
I clenched my teeth, feeling pretty angry at Ezra for the display he just pulled. It wasn’t that I couldn’t appreciate a guy wouldn’t feel right taking money from a girl, but it put me in a precarious situation. I would feel awkward around him forever now knowing I hitched a ride like a parasite on a hippo’s back.
“Stop,” he said as we approached the light to turn left toward the gas station we’d left poor Kai at.
“Stop what?”
“Stop doing the girl thing.”
I huffed. “What in the world does that mean, Ezra Brandon?”
“The girl thing. That girl thing. The thing you do when you feel like you’ve been slighted or whatever when it’s just something I don’t want to do, okay?”
My heart softened toward him. “Fine,” I acquiesced, “on one condition?”
“Depends on what it is.”
“Ezra!”
“Spit it out, Jupiter.”
I huffed. I was doing that a lot with Ezra, I noticed. “Let me pick up a meal once in a while?”
“No,” he said emphatically.
“Ezra Brandon, you’re starting to piss me off.”
Ezra laughed, really laughed. It was such a far-off memory, that gorgeous laugh, that it startled me, arrested me, took me a moment to gain my senses.
“I don’t care, Jupiter. This is my car. I do what I want.”
“Ezra flipping Brandon!” I yelled, as we pulled into the gas station.
Kai stood at the station’s entrance, his arms wide in a classic what-the-hell-dude pose. Ezra came to a halt right in front of him and I jumped out, pulling the seat back forward for him to get in.
“I’m so sorry, Kai,” I said.
He looked at me like I was insane.
“Ezra,” Kai said, acknowledging him as if nothing had happened.
Ezra turned around toward his cousin. “Sorry, dude.”
Kai laughed. “Don’t worry about it. You were distracted.”
Ezra narrowed his eyes at his cousin when I bent down to look between them. They were staring at one another hard. I’d missed something.
“What’s going on?” I asked them, drawing it out in confusion.
Kai began to open his mouth, but Ezra interrupted him.
“Get in the car, Jupiter.”