“Forget them, who is Frenchy?” Adam asked.
I slid my tray over to him because he would eat the majority of my lunch anyway. “She’s a character from Grease.”
“I thought Sandy was from Grease?”
I was surprised that he’d been paying attention when I made him watch the movie with Chevelle and me a few months earlier. I’d thought he was just trying to feel me up under the blanket the whole time. I guess he could multitask. “She’s the main character.”
He ate the rest of my chicken nuggets as though he hadn’t devoured his entire lunch minutes earlier.
“Frenchy is the one who dyes…” I nodded and he shook his head. “Luce, we’re Danny and Sandy, not Frenchy and whoever.”
“Doody, and Doody is still a T-bird.”
“But he’s not the T-bird. Plus, if you’re Sandy, you can wear black leather pants.” His eyebrows waggled up and down.
I rolled my eyes. “But then I can’t dye my hair.”
Adam understood how badly I’d wanted to dye my hair since a few other girls in our school had done it. But it meant I had to bleach the color out of my hair first, so my mom was against it.
“I’ll admit I like that it will piss your mom off,” he said, which I understood.
Mom hated that I was dating Adam and tried to convince me daily how we were just young love and nothing would come of it. But I knew different.
“So can we?” I asked.
He blew out a breath and glanced at Toby across the table, who had somehow gotten his hands on Cora’s tray.
“You might as well put a ‘kick me’ sign on your back,” Toby remarked.
I put my palm in the air to shut him up. Adam glanced from Toby to me. I bit my lip and gave him my best “come on” look.
He sighed. “Fine.”
I threw my arms around his neck and cast kisses all along his face. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
“You owe me,” he whispered.
“Miss Davis. Mr. Greene. Please separate.” Mr. Turner stood at the end of our table.
We moved apart and apologized.
The lunch bell went off and Adam picked up my tray as Toby took Cora’s. I had science with Toby and Adam had math.
Adam glanced both ways down the hall at our lockers. “See you later, French.”
He kissed me right on the lips, then slid his tongue inside my mouth. Afterward, he winked and took off down the hall, swallowed up by the class who loved their star football player.
I held my books to my chest and sighed. He was mine.
“You really have him by the balls,” Toby said next to me.
I pushed off the locker and walked with him to science. “It’s called love. You should find it.”
He cackled so loudly, everyone looked at us. “You live in some imaginary bubble. Both of you.”
Toby was just one of many in our town who didn’t believe in us, but I was sure we’d prove them wrong. We weren’t typical high school sweethearts and they’d all see it at our ten-year reunion when Adam and I had a houseful of kids and were still as in love as we were that day.
I guess maybe I was the one who’d been wrong.
“Hey, baby,” I answer my phone, walking away from Lucy.
“Why are you calling me baby?” my stepsister Nikki asks.
I climb into my truck and put the keys in the ignition, trying not to look up, but I fail like always, taking one last glimpse of Lucy as she stands in the middle of the parking lot in her mud-covered clothes, staring at her feet.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“Don’t play stupid. Did you think I was Alicia or something?”
“Nope.”
My stepsister won’t ever find out that I called her baby to somehow get back at Lucy. What for? For the part of her that doesn’t remember that she broke my heart, I guess. I’m a terrible human being.
“Whatever,” she says. “Anyway, I’m calling to warn you that I’m outing this whole Lucy situation tomorrow morning on my show.”
I blow out a breath and pull out of the parking lot, putting her on Bluetooth once I know Lucy can’t hear our conversation outside of the car. “Of course you are.”
“I can’t let people say I’m playing favorites. Cade already got those rumblings started when I held the story on Presley last year.”
I roll my eyes. Nikki is a radio personality at the local station, and part of her schtick is this gossip piece she calls the “Scandals of Sunrise.”
“It’s fine. What are you going to say?”
I can’t blame Nikki. Cade despises what she does, but someone in this town is gonna spread the gossip. As far as I’m concerned, it might as well be a family member. Plus, it’s better than one gossipy secret turning into a game of telephone and becoming something else entirely at the other end. At least with Nikki’s show, everyone knows she tries to make sure her sources are legit.
“I’m just saying that she’s back and doesn’t remember why she left. It might help her too. Everyone in town expects her to be her old self and open her arms and hearts to everyone. I heard some stirrings at The Grind this morning about how she’s turned cold and mean. Then someone from the Gossip Brigade told that person that she doesn’t know who she is.”
Fuck. Figures everything would get convoluted. I’m actually thankful Nikki will get the real story out there. “Well, thanks for the warning.”
“Sure thing. Figured you two would want to know, so if you see her, maybe you can tell her.”
My hands tighten on the steering wheel. “I’m not gonna see her.”
“I heard she was going back to Idaho?” She’s digging for information now. “And just so you know, Ethel and Dori had her cornered at Two Brothers and an Egg this morning, so watch out. You know those two.”
I huff, wondering if Grandma could work her magic with her friend Dori. But unless I fall off a horse too and forget the pain Lucy caused me, there’s no hope of rekindling a relationship between us. I’d always be afraid she’d up and leave me again when she regained her memories.
“You’d have to ask her. I’m cool with it, Nikki, but I’m not gonna be one of your sources.”
“I was just being a nice sister. It’s a fine line.” There’s an edge to her tone, which I understand.
“You do know one day you’re going to find yourself on the other side of this, right? And then you’ll feel how we do.” I stop at a stop sign and turn right.
“It’s not like I’m someone famous and I’m telling the whole world, Adam. It’s Sunrise Bay.”
Having this argument with her is ridiculous, especially since I don’t really care. I’m just not gonna let her swindle information out of me. “I gotta go to work.”
“Fine.”
I hang up without saying goodbye like any good sibling in a snit with another one.
I don’t really have to go to work today, so I go to the only place where someone might be on my side. To people who understand what it was like to be left behind with no explanation.
After driving through town to the other side of the bay, I pull in front of the house to find her outside with chalk in her hand, drawing on the driveway. I park the truck at the bottom of the driveway and climb out.