“Picking up Bayla. We wanted to meet up.”
That was such a lie.
And then Bay appeared in the doorway.
“You look like hell,” I said as I eyed my best friend, who was standing there in a Vanderwood hoodie and gray sweatpants. Her hair looked thinner, and her face was ashen. “You should get out in the sun again, sweetheart.”
I grinned, and she looked at me with a sideways glance that said something like: Very funny. Do you see any sun here?
“Why are you here?” Bay and her mother asked at the same time, both meaning something different.
“I was longing for your daughter and decided without a second thought to study here too.”
I knew I was being spontaneous. Diana knew it too. And only one of us liked it.
“And you put on something proper before we leave,” I continued, pointing at Bay's outfit. “I'm not taking you with me like this.”
“Leaving?” Bay looked confusedly at me, Ms. Adams at my black Kawasaki H2R in her front yard.
“Come on, it'll be dark soon,” I warned, even though that had been my plan.
Bay wanted to say something else, but thankfully changed her mind and disappeared back into the house. Her mother stayed behind, still not seeming to have regained her composure.
“How did you get here?” she asked me, and I pointed to the motorcycle behind me, which she had just been eyeing with suspicion.
“Didn't you have a scholarship for...”
“Yes, but it wasn't that important,” I lied again.
Of course, I thought day and night about the photography scholarship from the university that Bay and I had actually wanted to go to. But mourning something that was no longer there anyway didn't get me anywhere.
Diana just nodded as if she was an overworked robot.
At this point, she had to know me. After all, she had seen me grow up, even if not entirely by choice.
Bayla and I had met for the first time on the playground, and I had quickly realized that I could have a lot of fun with her. She wasn't such an annoying bigwig kid, like those upscale rich kids from the neighborhood where my former housemother had always sent us girls to the luxury playground. The place Olivia had lived with her father.
And even though Diana Adams earned a pretty penny, she knew how to raise children into decent young adults and didn't spoil her daughter with too many things.
“Finally, there you are,” I said to Bayla, who had reappeared in the doorway. This time in warmer clothes. The jeans she was wearing clung to her legs, and it looked as if she had become thinner.
“Where are you going?” Diana asked, addressing me, because Bay didn't usually know where I was taking her, especially when it was spontaneous.
I threw a helmet to Bayla, which she barely managed to catch. Already last night she had seemed so exhausted.
“To a coffee shop,” I chirped, and it wasn't a lie, at least if you assumed that keeping parts of the truth a secret wasn't lying either.
If Diana knew what I was up to, she'd rip my head off and chain her daughter to her room with a steel lock.
Bay looked at me for a moment as if I'd lost my mind, because I'd never been in a coffee shop with her for as long as I could remember, but luckily Diana was looking at my bike and not at her daughter.
“Please drive carefully, Larissa!” Diana warned me, concerned.
What was she thinking? I'd never had an accident before. Funny enough, she still didn't like the motorcycle with me and her daughter on the back.
“And please bring my daughter back to me in one piece before curfew.”
“Of course,” I laughed and inwardly hoped that I'd get back safely myself.
“You want to do what?” Bayla sat in front of me, a look of concern on her face. “Have you forgotten that we got busted last time?” she hissed, barely audible.
We were in Lola's Diner, and Lola must be the nice old lady in her sixties who had hired all the students to satisfy the hustle and bustle.
I didn't expect the place to be so busy at this time of day, otherwise I would definitely have gone somewhere else, but we were in Blairville and I only knew this diner, which Grace had recommended to me.
Grace just happened to be working a substitute shift here along with Mady's way too hot brother and shy Penny Bexley among other people, none of whom I knew. She came to our table with two full milkshakes.
“Strawberry for one lady and blueberry for the other,” she joked, placing the milkshakes in front of us.
Of course, Bayla had ordered something with blueberries. What else? And of course, Grace had to come and sit with us now. Not that I minded. But Bay and I had no time to waste.
“I've only got a few minutes, so tell me, what are you doing here?” Grace looked at us both with expectation, and Bay glanced at me looking for help.
“We're planning our costumes for the Halloween party next weekend.”
Bay's eyes widened.
I had to stifle a grin.
