Page 5 of Before We’re More Than Friends (When We Faced the Music #1)

Dallas

PRESENT DAY

L ife would be so much easier if packing things in boxes was as easy as taking things out of them.

It’d been a few days since I’d started packing, but I only managed to fill three boxes out of who knew how many. And given how I kept looking through old stuff and thinking about my fond memories, it didn’t look like much packing would happen.

I opened the box of letters I’d kept in the closet since my seventh birthday. I’d decided to make a Valentine’s Day box with my dad in first grade, and even after eating all the candy and misplacing the Valentines, I put the huge shoebox in my closet for safekeeping.

Eventually, I started using it to store all my letters from Chloe in there. I flipped through the letters in the box until I found the first one she’d sent me. A smile spread across my face. Though I’d read this letter about a thousand times in my lifetime, it never failed to make me grin.

I took a picture of the front page of the letter before sending it to Chloe on Connections, a chat app we’d been messaging each other on since when we were in sixth grade.

We’d decided that sending letters back and forth took too long to be our main way of communicating, and I didn’t regret trying the app when she’d asked me to download it.

Alex

Going down memory lane. I had no freaking idea what I was in for

Chloe

Only meeting the best girl in existence

My cheeks warmed. She’d only been joking, but she had no idea I actually viewed her that way.

Which was why meeting her in real life could ruin everything.

Alex

I’m not sure the best. Maybe the most interesting?

Chloe

Way too interesting for someone who is so lame that he just sits on the floor all day thinking about how interesting I am

Gosh, I wished that joke hadn’t been true. Because I’d found myself on the floor, at my desk, and on my bed thinking about how freaking interesting she was. I truly was lame.

Alex

I didn’t message you to insult me

I’m just going to pack these up now and forget they exist

Chloe

I’m deeply sorry I hurt your feelings. I hope you’ll forgive me for my sins against you.

Alex

Gonna give you the silent treatment until I heal from this wound you’ve inflicted on me

Houston sat beside me and rolled over as if telling me I needed a break before my mind exploded.

I sighed and gave in, rubbing his soft stomach. “Thanks, boy.” I carefully put pages of the letter in a folder from my backpack. Usually, I kept some letters on my dresser, but there was no point in doing that when my dresser wouldn’t even be there in a few days.

Guilt washed over me for wishing my mom hadn’t gotten a great job offer to be a veterinarian at a successful no-kill animal shelter.

In Nevada . It wasn’t on the other side of the country, or outside the country, but it was far away enough for me to make my stomach twist. I wanted her to help more animals, but the sacrifices we had to make hurt like hell.

I should’ve known a big change was coming.

Mom and Dad had been acting strange ever since November.

A lot of whispering, soft arguments, and phone calls.

Mom’s flinching when we talked about our daily routines and the glances at the pictures on the wall.

It was clear as day, but I’d been too stuck in my bubble to notice.

When Mom had made us mac and cheese—which we usually only had on the weekends—on the first Wednesday evening of the new year, dread sank itself into me. The only possibility that came to my mind was divorce, but even that seemed like a stretch.

“I’ve waited to tell you two this, but . . .” Mom’s eyes met Dad’s for a split second, and worry rose in my chest. “I’m taking a job as a veterinarian at a new shelter.”

Kami and I exchanged a look, knowing there was something else to the statement.

“That’s good,” Kami said after a few moments of silence, playing with her fork instead of looking at Mom.

Mom drew in a sharp breath, closing her eyes for a moment before she spoke again. “In Nevada.”

Even Houston choked on his food as the words crashed over us. I searched the room as if I was expecting a camera crew to jump out of the kitchen and tell us we’d just been pranked. Given the gravity that had taken over this room, I wished that would happen.

“Does that mean we have to move?” I nearly screeched, my fork shaking in my hands. Stupid question because it wasn’t like Mom would say, “No, we’re going to have to drive this many hours to the shelter every day. It’ll be a long commute.”

Mom sighed. “On the twenty-ninth.”

“January twenty-ninth?” Kami spat, flecks of cheese spewing out of her mouth. I cringed, shifting to the right. “Isn’t that in three weeks?”

Mom stared at her plate. “It should be enough time to get ready.”

“It isn’t,” Dad muttered, still having it in him to eat a bite of mac and cheese. My appetite was out the window, farther away than Nevada. “You should’ve told them before the new year started.”

“I didn’t want to ruin the holidays for everyone,” Mom said, her voice rising a little. “I wanted them to enjoy their last Christmas and New Year’s here without having something to dread.”

“I much rather would’ve known that it would be our last Christmas and New Year’s here than live in blissful ignorance!” Kami threw her hands up, more cheese spewing from her mouth. I fought the urge to gag. “We could’ve had months to prepare instead of freaking weeks.”

“Don’t use that tone with me, Kameron,” Mom warned, her brows furrowing.

Dad picked his plate. “No, she has a right to be upset.”

“Why didn’t you tell us, then?” Kami asked, her face growing red.

He sighed. “Trust me, I wanted to tell you as soon as your mom accepted the job offer. But she was very stubborn about not wanting you guys to know until the right time.”

Kami scoffed. “Now is the right time?”

“Please, guys,” Mom pleaded, eagerness in her voice. “This is a big opportunity I took a lot of time to consider. I hope . . . I hope you understand why I said yes. This is something I wanted so . . .” She sniffled, her eyes watering behind her black-framed glasses.

“I’m happy for you,” I finally managed to say, though my insides felt everything but. I was still stuck on the fact that we were moving away from our forever home, let alone in three weeks.

“Thank you.” Mom’s words were almost a whisper.

Dad squeezed her hand, despite being almost emotionless a few seconds ago.

“I’m happy for you too,” Kami said. Her face was still red, but her body was less tense. “I’m very proud of you.”

“Thank you.” Mom sniffled again before getting up from the table. “I need to . . . I just . . .” She shook her head, her eyes glistening with tears as she ran out of the room.

“That honestly went better than how I expected it to,” Dad said.

“Your children being upset and your wife running away in tears is better?” Kami shot up from the table, the anger back in her voice. She stormed out of the room and up the stairs, her footsteps heavy and uneven.

Dad looked at Houston, who was sitting by his dog bowl, looking confused, before his eyes met mine. “I’m sorry, kid. I didn’t want this to happen this way. But I wasn’t going to get in the way of your mom’s career.”

“I understand.” But that didn’t make it any easier.

Not to my surprise, neither Kami nor Mom came back to dinner. Instead, I awkwardly watched Dad finish his dinner in silence while I was on the verge of throwing up. The worst had only started.

Not only were we going to a brand-new state with no Toby, no adorable Dallas animals from our local shelter, and no special Texas Ash Tree, but now my family had shaken itself into an earthquake.

These four walls contained my entire world.

I’d taken my first steps here. We’d adopted Houston as a puppy and brought him here, where he chewed all our shoes overnight.

The carpet in my room had been thrown away once Houston had too many accidents on it.

Kami and I had bruised ourselves from falling down the stairs too many times to count.

Dad had caused a fire while grilling in the backyard.

Mom had brought home a family of bunnies that camped out in her bedroom.

When I’d told Chloe about the move that horrible night, I was sobbing at my laptop, my hands shaking so badly that I kept spelling like a first grader.

The one thing I’d left out was the exact place I was moving to.

She knew I was moving to Nevada, but not that I was moving to her middle-to-upper-class suburban town, April Springs.

Chloe and I had never told each other our real names.

After a few months in the friendship, we decided it would be better for us to keep our identities private.

No face reveals, no sharing social media accounts that had our real identity—not that I had social media up until a few months ago—or anything that could reveal ourselves.

And we were fine with it. To my knowledge.

But knowing that I was moving to her exact city made me feel exposed.

We both didn’t want to meet each other out of fear, even though we’d never admitted it.

I knew I was going to her school, the only public high school in the city, and would be in the same grade.

I didn’t know what animal shelter she volunteered at, but if it was the same one that my mom had gotten the job at, I wouldn’t be surprised.

I doubted we’d live in the same neighborhood, given that her dad was a millionaire while my parents were upper middle class at best. But the possibility was still there.

There were more possibilities than what I was comfortable with.

For two people who are long-term best friends, you are both cowards .

Houston nudged me again, still on his back, as if saying, stop spiraling and keep petting me. I’ll get rid of your worries. You know, until you decide to be responsible again.

Smiling, I rubbed his soft fur before pushing my backpack away from me. “I wish I had your luxurious lifestyle.”

Houston licked my hand. That’s why I’m happy I’m just a dog.

“Can you stop moping and help me bathe these cats?”

I sighed and got up from my chair in the shelter’s tiny break room. “I’m having a crisis.”

“Yeah, I’m having a crisis too—the cats still need to be bathed, and I can’t do it myself.” Toby gestured to his arms, which still had scars from the last time he’d bathed the cats by himself. Two months ago.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” As I followed him into the room where the cat tub was, I caught a glimpse of my mom in her office. She was packing her things into boxes. My chest tightened.

“Who’s doing what?” I asked Toby as we entered the room.

“You help the cats into the tub, and then we’ll bathe them together.”

“You’re having me do the hard parts?”

He turned on the water for the bath. “Why do you complain about all your tasks? You’ve played around with dogs in the mud without backtalk.”

“First of all, you’re not my boss, so I can backtalk you all I want.”

Toby gave me the type of looks that parents gave their children when they suggested something obviously stupid.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m sorry.

It’s just . . .” When I looked around the room, pictures of volunteers and animals covered the walls.

Pictures that included Toby, Kami, and me with whoever we were taking care of that day.

Tears welled in the back of my eyes, and I took a step back to process.

How many times could a guy cry in an animal shelter in a two-and-a-half-week time frame?

“Dallas.” Toby stopped the water and gave me a hug. He rubbed his hands along my back, the way my family did after I had a bad day. My lungs tightened inside my ribs. “I know.”

“Thank you.” A tear spilled onto his sleeve as I hugged him back.

“I feel like I’m dying.” Toby was my only friend here, and I couldn’t imagine a life without him.

We were the type of best friends who planned to attend the same college and live next door to each other with their families.

But here we were, our plans knocked over like a dog bowl.

“It’s killing me too. If I could, I’d sneak into one of the moving boxes and show up at your new house in Nevada. I’m sure I could put some food and water in there and put on a diaper, though cramping might be an issue.”

“It’d have to be a box meant for storing a dead body inside.” I laughed at the image of him stuffing himself in a big box like he was climbing into a coffin.

“You’re way more practical than I am.” Toby grinned before bringing in the cats who needed to be bathed. We had eight of them, and thankfully, seven of them were sleepy and hopefully wouldn’t give us a hard time. Simba, however, would be a challenge as he was running circles around his cage.

“If you were a cat, you’d be like that,” I told Toby, pointing to Simba. “He can’t contain himself.”

Toby gave a soft laugh. “Yeah, we’re saving him for last.” He brought out the scrubs for the cats. “Bring out the first one.”

I took the first one out—Pearl. I hadn’t met her yet. I rubbed her plush white fur and gave her a big smile. “Hello, Pearl, it’s nice to meet you.” I blinked at her three times. I’d heard that it was a way of telling a cat you loved them, but I couldn’t be sure.

She looked up at me with her big blue eyes and meowed.

“She’s adorable,” Toby said with a smile. “But stop going goo-goo over her and get her in the tub.”

I sighed and helped Pearl into the tub. She cooperated with me very well and seemed to enjoy her bath. Huge grins were on our faces the whole time.

We bathed the cats up until Simba, who kept running wild. Bracing myself, I picked him up from his cage, which was when he bit my hand. I winced and slowly lifted him into the water.

Toby grabbed the brush to clean him off, but Simba shot up and attacked Toby’s arm. Both of us screamed, and I dove forward to get Simba off Toby, which involved knocking over the bathtub and drenching all three of us and half of the room with water .

Toby let out a string of curses before we both fell out laughing, rolling onto the floor.

“What’s going on?” Kami walked into the room to see the ocean we’d created. Her mouth hit the floor. “What in the world?—”

“Simba wasn’t in the mood for a bath today,” I managed to choke out through laughs. “And he started to?—”

“Yeah, I can tell.” She nodded at Toby’s arm, which was covered in blood, before sighing. “Mom’s surprise party is in half an hour, and you can’t come looking like that.”

“No crap, Sherlock,” Toby said. “Get me a freaking first aid kit.”

She gave one more sigh and left the room without saying anything else. The two of us turned back to each other.

“Is it crazy that I’m going to miss disasters like this together?” Toby asked, holding Simba in his lap.

I wrapped my arm around him, which flung water in our faces. We shook our heads and laughed. “It would be crazy not to miss these moments,” I said. “They’ll be at the front of my mind when I’m not here.”