Pact

I hated doing nothing, being stalled like this. It was in the quiet moments that I felt like trouble would start breathing down my neck.

It wasn’t that he was being hurtful. He was, but it was the kind of hurt I had to trust to those close to me to provide. That any of us did. The sort of truth that one didn’t want to hear. The sort of truth, even, that one might not immediately appreciate, that could test the friendship.

“So,” I said, “Alexis, Ty, maybe even Tiff, this might a moment that your entire life has been leading up to.” “All moments are moments our entire life has been leading up to,” Ty said. “I know,” I said. I had to suppress a sigh. “But I wanted to be dramatic and clever, and there aren’t many ways to do that without lying.”