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Tori huffs. “Because we are running the trail and then going straight to your parents’ house for brunch. This way we won’t have to go back to the trail to pick up the car and can come back with Amara since she is meeting us there.”
“Fine.” I groan again.
When Tori and I head out the door, the sun is still low in the horizon. The breeze from the ocean gives the air a slight chill, though it will get warmer as the sun rises. We start out slow but soon pick up speed. I’m not a runner like Tori, but I can keep up. Mostly. Thankfully we take the shortcut that takes us the back way. We meet Jonathan by the corner of the park that is equal distance from our house and his apartment.
“About time,” he jokes. “You took so long to get here, I took a nap.”
I glare at him. Then I see that he’s leaning against his car, and I turn my glare to Tori. “Jonathan drove! We could have driven!”
She brushes me off without a word. “Should we get going?”
“Can someone tell me again why we have to be up so early?” I complain. “And don’t tell me it’s because of brunch. That isn’t until 10:00, and it is currently 6:15.” I make a show of looking at my watch. “I know I’m not as fast as the two of you, but I’m not that slow!”
Jonathan sits back and watches Tori and I go back and forth before finally ending our argument. “If you two are done, I’d really like to get my run started,” he says with a smile on his smug didn’t-have-to-run-to-the-trail face. He hands each of us a water bottle. “Shall we?” And he starts towards the park’s trail.
We run the familiar two miles faster than I would like but slow enough that we are able to talk. Or rather, they can talk. I make the occasional single work comment. Anything more makes my lungs burn. Jonathan tells us about the upcoming school year and the ideas he has planned for his students. When we reach the end of the trail, I’m gasping for air. Between the two miles we just ran and the two miles we ran to get here, I’m wiped. If Tori gets her way, we still have three miles to my parent’s place. I contemplate which would be better, to go back down the trail to Jonathan’s car or just suck it up and end up at my parents’.
I’m too much of a people pleaser, especially for my best friends, so I know what I will end up doing, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking about it.
Jonathan gulps down his water as he wipes the sweat from his forehead. “Any idea what the big announcement is?”
I shake my head. “No idea.”
Tori, completely unfazed by the run, laughs. “It’s Norah and Helen. They will look for any excuse to celebrate. Remember when we were kids and they threw a party to celebrate Jonathan being named student director of the spring play? Or when Matt got his cast taken off?”
Jonathan and I look at each other and start laughing. Tori isn’t wrong. My mom loves to celebrate anything and everything. Nothing is too small. And his mom is the best co-conspirator she could ever ask for. This brunch could literally be about anything.
“Mark’s coming home!” Helen’s eyes shine with tears as she squeaks with excitement. With the level of reverence she gives the news, you’d think he had been deployed, not just living in North Carolina the last few years. Jonathan’s older brother hasn’t been home much since going off to college, even less since law school. Much to Helen’s dismay. We all know she took it hard when not only did Mark go away to school but then went into law just like his father. I’ve never heard Helen say a bad word about Jack, but with everything that happened with the divorce, I’d be shocked if she didn’t at least think them sometimes.
I haven’t seen Mark much the last few years. I think the last time was at Ben’s wedding when we danced. My cheeks heat at the memory. Very few people know about the childhood crush I had, and by very few, I mean Tori. I’ve never told Jonathan, and I never will. When we were eleven, we watched a movie where the two best friends make a pact to never date each other’s siblings so naturally Jonathan said we needed a pact too. At the time I thought it was dumb; I mean, my little sister was six, and Mark was sixteen. He never would have noticed me, so I agreed. I had completely forgotten about the pact until a few years later; he brought it up again when we had friends from school get into a huge fight because one had started dating the other’s sister and hadn’t told the other about it.
“That’s why we have our pact.” Jonathan had been so sure, and I didn’t want to disappoint him. Jonathan’s feelings were more important to me than any unrequited crush I had on his brother, who was all the way in Texas being a big shot college baseball star. Not that I kept track of his stats or anything. (I totally did.)
I look over at Tori and see her watching me with her eyebrow raised. She can read me like one of my books. I try to calm my thudding heart before I look over to Jonathan. If Tori can read me then so will he, only he won’t know all the details.
When I finally look over at him, he is staring straight ahead, and his jaw is clenched. The vein in his forehead is throbbing like it does when he’s stressed. I put my hand on his shoulder.
“Hey,” I soothe. “You, okay?”
“Fine,” he says through gritted teeth.
“I’m guessing you didn’t know anything about this?”
Jonathan relaxes his jaw and turns to face me. “Why would I? It’s not like he ever talks to me.”
He might look angry, but I hear the hurt in his voice. Neither Jonathan nor Mark are great at letting people in, but the ones they push away the most are each other.
I know more than most about their parents’ divorce, but I still don’t know everything. We were six, Mark had just turned twelve. One minute we were celebrating Jonathan and me being in our very first play, and the next their dad, Jack, was whisking Mark off for a birthday trip. Two weeks later Mom and Dad told us that everyone, sans Jack, were moving in with us for a little bit. Mark was different than he was before. Something happened that changed him. And it’s more than the announcement of their divorce. Even back then I seemed to be hyper aware of him. If it was a book, you would say it was a defining moment in his character development, but this is real life. I just know that ever since that trip Mark has made it a point to tell everyone that he doesn’t do relationships and he will definitely never get married.
The part of my heart that compares all men, real or fictional, to him is equal parts giddy that I will never have to see him married to someone else and sad that even if our complicated family situations allowed for a relationship that he would never dream of thinking of me in that way. Now that Mark is moving back to Ridgeview, I’ll just have to be extra careful that when I see him that I guard my heart. I can’t allow myself to go down that road again. My crush on Mark does just that, it crushes me. It makes it impossible for me to move on. Thankfully I won’t have to see him too often, it will be a few family dinners and the possible run in throughout town. How hard could it be?
Chapter 2
Mark
“You sure you know what you’re doing?” Todd asks as he carries the last box and places it in the moving truck.
“Not at all,” I admit. “But I can’t stay here.”
