Page 8 of Before We’re More Than Friends (When We Faced the Music #1)

Dallas

T he sun slowly set behind the clouds, the sky different shades of yellow, orange, and pink, with beautiful purple that welcomed the night.

Houston and Buster, Toby’s dog, looked up at it from below the Tree, sitting peacefully with their tongues sticking out.

They were much happier than we were right now.

Toby squeezed my hand. “Let me know if I’m crushing your hand.”

“Given that this is the last time we’ll do this for a while, I’ll let you crush it anyway.” A tear fell from my cheek.

“Please don’t cry.” Toby sniffled and wiped his nose with his sleeve. “You’re going to make me cry.”

“Then you’re going to cry.” More tears streamed down my face, and I let out a small sob. “This . . . I . . . I can’t leave.”

“You have to. Having my family adopt you will be a longer process than the move itself.” He wiped a tear from my cheek, the way my mom or Kami did when I was upset.

They had done it many times the past three and a half weeks that had led to this moment.

“Just go. Live your new life.” He wiped a tear that trickled down his own cheek. “We’ll meet again. ”

“You’re making it sound like one of us is dying.”

“Part of us is dying.” He looked off into the distance with glassy brown eyes. “But we’ll get through this. I’ll blow up your phone like crazy. Hike my way to your new house to visit you if I have to. Go to prison if anyone hurts you. You’re still my second favorite person to Buster.”

“Wow, you never told me you loved your dog more.” I rubbed my chest. “Now I’ll miss you a lot less.”

“Oh, shut up.” He punched me in the arm.

“Ouch!” I rubbed my arm, feigning hurt. “Now I’ll really miss you less.”

“You’re full of s—” A bird flew past Toby, nearly making him fall off the branch. “Rude.”

I laughed. “That’s what you get.”

“I’m glad you’re moving away.” Toby held on to the Tree like his life depended on it. “Now Buster won’t have any competition.”

“Oh, gosh.” I rolled my eyes before brushing tears away with my sleeve. “I love you.”

Toby wrapped his arms around me and slapped me on the back, and I did the same to him. “I love you too. You’ll always be Dallas from Dallas.”

Have you ever been on a long car ride to drive four states away with a dog barking in your ears while your parents sing horrible old songs from the eighties and your sister complains the whole time? Well, I don’t recommend it.

It didn’t help that the noise made my head pound. Or that we hadn’t stopped by a rest stop in forever. Not only did I need fresh air, but my bladder did, too. And there was no way I was using the bottle Mom had handed me or pissing at the side of the road for everyone to see.

At least for now.

After being trapped in the next thing to hell, we stopped in Santa Fe for the night. Dad booked us a two-bedroom suite so we could get our own space. After going out to eat, we showered and got ready for bed so we could get up bright and early.

When I opened my laptop on my bed, I smiled as I opened the DM Chloe had left me on Connections.

Chloe

How’s the move going? I know you’re having a rough time, but I hope things are going smoothly.

Alex

Things could be smoother. We’re in Santa Fe right now after and dealing with my family and Houston annoying the living hell out of me. I am NOT looking forward to the long drive tomorrow, but at least we’ll finally be in Nevada.

After a few minutes of staring at my bright screen that was starting to hurt my eyes, Chloe replied.

Chloe

Thanks for letting me know that I could NEVER move with my family. It sounds tedious as freak. I’m sorry your family’s been annoying. When everyone is going through changes, it can turn into a mess.

Alex

Yeah, I hate change with a burning passion.

Chloe

Me too. Talked a lot about the changes I’m going through with Susanna today. I guilted her into playing UNO with me instead of going on with the conversation.

Alex

Knowing how much you love UNO, I’m not surprised.

Chloe

I love that you guys know me so well.

Alex

Of course we do ;)

How have you been doing?

Chloe

Not much better. Arielle got us tickets for a concert, but Gracelynn showed up, and it made me worry that her mom wouldn’t let her come. It started a fight because she thought I was accusing her of being a bad friend. Kind of killed the atmosphere for me, which sucks because Checkmark did amazing.

I don’t want to be selfish, but my mom’s falling-out with Jennifer is starting to ruin my life. I’m waiting for the day the two of them will make up already, but I know it’s complicated and Jennifer is harder than a brick wall.

Alex

That freaking sucks. I’m sorry.

My chest grew heavy. If Toby’s mom didn’t want me around him anymore, I wouldn’t know what to do.

Oh, wait, I couldn’t be around him anymore. Because we’d be four states away now.

I shook my head, trying to get rid of the thought.

Chloe

I don’t know if I’m overthinking this or not. I don’t have any doubts about Gracelynn herself, but her parents care so much about their image. The strain between our families is killing us.

Alex

I don’t think you’re overthinking this. I’d be worried in this situation, too.

She didn’t reply for a few minutes, and I wondered if I’d said something wrong. Guilt weighed on my chest as I waited for her reply to come in.

Chloe

Sorry, I started to spiral a little bit. I think I need to log off for tonight. But before I go, is it okay if I asked you a question?

Alex

I understand, and I’m sorry. Also, you just did.

Chloe

My sense of humor has rubbed off on you over the years. I’m flattered. *Blushes*

I grinned, my cheeks warming. You have no idea .

Alex

What’s your actual question?

Chloe

I know you don’t want to move to Nevada, but I noticed that you never told me about where you’re moving to. Are you going to live near the Las Vegas area or in one of the cities surrounded by the desert?

I really don’t want to make things awkward or put any more pressure on our friendship, but do you ever think we might run into each other?

I don’t know. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how I wish I could meet you. Know your real name and the rest of you.

Does that make me sound clingy?

My hands froze on the keyboard. I knew I’d more likely come across her at some point. But I didn’t want to know it. I didn’t want what I saw in person to ruin what we had online.

Alex

Where is this coming from?

I instantly regretted my response, but she was already typing before I could delete it.

Chloe

It’s just that you’d never mentioned it before.

I knew it was too late to save myself. Why did the idea of meeting her make my stomach twist?

Because you’re a freaking coward and have already let her closer to you than you’d wanted .

I pushed the thought away. That was selfish. It was a good thing that we were so close. So open.

Chloe

I just thought . . . because we’re so close, and we don’t know what we look like or even our real names. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but not as much until you said you were moving.

I hope you don’t take it the wrong way.

I just really want to meet you, just once, but I understand if you want to keep our privacy. I’m worried you won’t like me if we met irl, anyway.

I thought I should tell you how I feel.

And I should be strong enough to tell you how I feel . How I’ve felt for who knows how long now.

Chloe

I’m sorry if I made you upset. I shouldn’t have said that. Good night.

Alex

No, wait!

I rushed to type my next response, my blood rushing in my ears as I tried to fix my typos.

Alex

I don’t know what city I’m moving to, but I can always see about meeting up in the future. That would be cool. And I promise I will love you for who you are if we meet in real life.

I flinched at the word love , knowing that we both had different definitions of the word regarding our relationship.

Alex

I want you to tell me how you feel. That’s what I’m here for.

Chloe

Thank you. I was worried I scared you off.

Guilt pinched my chest.

Alex

Never.

Chloe

Can I . . . can I tell you what my name is? I know we promised we would never share, but I just want to tell you mine.

Of course. Not. I was about to send the message when a wave of fear crashed over me.

No way in hell was I about to let her tell me her name on an emotional impulse.

After years of knowing her as only Chloe V, I knew I couldn’t handle hearing the full thing in a state like this.

When I had feelings so complicated that I found my head spinning.

Alex

Not yet.

The sigh I let out was so loud that Houston’s head popped up from the foot of my bed after he’d been snoring for the past half hour.

Chloe

What do you mean? Why don’t you want to know now?

Alex

Because

I accidentally hit send before I could finish writing my excuse. Well, crap .

Chloe

Because what?

Because for some reason my brain chemistry is messed up and I have this weird belief that knowing too much will ruin what we have, but if knowing too much would ruin that, do we really have anything in the first place?

Gosh, I hated myself.

Alex

Sorry, caught me off guard.

You can tell me.

I can tell you mine back.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? I fought the urge to shout to myself out loud.

Chloe’s typing bubble popped up for a solid two minutes. I rocked back and forth on my bed as music played in my ears, trying to pay attention to the lyrics and not my heart having a freak-out session in my chest.

The notification sound came through while I was on another tab, and I nearly knocked my laptop off the bed.

I was going to crap or piss myself. Or throw up. All over these white sheets.

I swallowed the acid in my throat as I clicked back to Connections to see her message.

Chloe

Forget it. Have a good night.

The green icon next to her profile picture turned gray, meaning she’d logged off.