Page 70 of Finding My Forever

Could she do anything? Short of flying to New York and talking some sense into Liam, I couldn’t think of anything.

“I don’t think so, Beth. I sent him a text today, and he never replied.”

“Give him some time, April. He’s probably busy.”

I sighed. As much as I wanted to believe her words, my heart resisted. I couldn’t allow any room for false hope.

“Give him a full day. If he doesn’t respond that’s when you can call me, and I’ll come over with enough ice cream to put you into a sugar coma for long enough to forget about him.”

I smiled at that visual. “Sounds perfect.”

“I love you, bug. Talk to you later.”

“Love you.”

I hung up and accepted her advice. I needed to give him time to respond. He could still be stuck at rehearsal or studying. He hadn’t used his phone very much around me, so maybe he wasn’t the type to always check his phone.

Soaking in a bath with a book sounded like the best thing in the world. So, I ignored real life for an hour before heading to bed. All without checking my phone.

Chapter 20

As if school hadn’t been bad enough, I had cheer practice to effectively kill what was left of my ability to put on a happy façade. Between Gwen’s snide remarks and Harley’s constant giggling, I was two seconds away from back handspringing into their faces.

“You need to pull yourself together, April.” Katie barked at me with her hands on her hips.

Gwen jumped in, “Yeah, you’ve been two beats behind all day.”

I glared at my best friend. She was the one person that was supposed to be on my side.

“Sorry.”

I ignored the giggles behind me and focused on Katie counting us in. This time, Gwen had nothing to say so I figured I did well enough.

Part of me wanted to tell Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb exactly what I thought of them, but deep down I knew they were right. I was distracted. I left my phone at home so I wouldn’t be tempted to check it every other second, but the not knowing was worse. What if Liam called or texted and now, I wasn’t responding?

I shoved away all thoughts about him and focused all my energy and thoughts on cheer so I wouldn’t be the reason practice ran long. Homecoming may be over, but competition season was here, and Katie expected perfection from everyone. If any one of us stood out, for all of the wrong reasons, she would keep us here until the wrestling team showed up to use the gym.

It was so bad that I was actually wishing I was making a hundred orders of a dozen red roses. Anything would be better than pretending to have pep while going over the same routine for the umpteenth time.

I already let my mind wander once during practice. I fantasize about screaming in each of their faces about how little I cared about this.

Just last week I was exploring a new city and falling in love. Now I was back to being a marionette. The stings of social expectations moving me through each day.

Wow. Sophia would be so proud of that. I’d have to text her when––if––practice ever ended.

“April!” Katie was glaring at me, her face full of fury. “You just missed your aerial. Again!”

The rest of the girls were staring at me. I was undoubtedly their least favorite person in the world currently.

“I’m sorry, Katie.” I panted, exhausted. “We’ve just been doing this for so long.”

She glared at me for another second before looking around. The other girls looked as tired as I felt.

“Fine. If we can do one more without any mistakes, we can go home.”

As desperately as I wanted to roll my eyes, I refrained and walked to my starting position.

Two and a half minutes later we were released from the prison of the gym. Once again, I didn’t have time to shower before work. Looked like I’d be stuck in the back working on orders again. Darn.