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“Will—”
“I’m not done!”
She pushes off the hood and walks around to the driver’s side.
“Where the hell are you going?” I ask.
Jovie says nothing. She reaches inside and withdraws a stack of papers from the passenger seat. She returns to me with her head down and her hand extended, silently waiting for me to take them.
“What’s this?” I snatch them from her fingers. “My Dear John letter? An itinerary for bumming around Europe?”
My attention falls to the papers and I scan them, feeling an aching regret growing in my gut with every new word.
I lower my voice. “A community college application?”
Jovie nods. “I met with an adviser in Overland Park today. He showed me around the campus a little.”
“You’re applying to school?”
“It seems like a good fit and the commute won’t be too bad, assuming my car doesn’t explode by then.” She stares at her shoes. “I can start in the fall if I want. I was going to tell you tonight.”
“… Oh.”
“But, please, finish your little outburst,” she says, crossing her arms again. “I bet it feels quite liberating to dig into me like that.”
“Jove…” I swallow the black void down my throat. “I am so sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She shrugs. “You have every right to assume.”
“No, I don’t. I feel like an asshole. What… what can I do to make this up to you?”
“Well, you can start by cinching up my car,” she says, back-kicking her bumper. “Then, you can spend the entire ride home singing Over the Rainbow at the top of your lungs.”
I nod. “Okay.”
“With the windows rolled down.”
“I can do that.”
“In your underwear.”
I squint. “Getting weird now but I’m still in.”
She smiles. “I wouldn’t leave again without telling you, Will.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t seem to know that five minutes ago.”
“I’m sorry.I’m an idiot.”
“It’s okay,” she says.
I glance down the abandoned highway. “So… where have you been, Jovie?”
“Hanging out with my dad.”
“Really?”
