Page 81 of Rival Hearts

It had been a dream being there with him, some kind of fantasy I hadn’t wanted to snap out of.

He’d said he wanted to be with me, and it had sounded fantastic.

I wanted to be with him, too.

But now that we were back in the real world, my mind was starting to plague me. I was highly prone to overthinking, and every reason thiscouldn’tworkchurned in my mind. The more I thought about it, the more panicked I became.

Maya always called me out on it when I over-thought something. She was my voice of reason, someone who closed her eyes and jumped without thinking at all.

Between the two of us, we struck a pretty good balance.

And I needed her advice.

I opened my laptop and sent Maya a direct message on our chat app. I didn’t have a phone to call her with.

Are you there?

I drummed my fingers on my table, waiting for a reply. She was probably out or away from her laptop.

I started typing another message, telling her my phone was dead. She replied before I could send it.

I’m here!! You’re not responding to any of my texts. Are you okay?

Yeah, fine. My phone’s dead so I can’t get anything but I need to see you.

I have news… I need to talk. You’re not going to believe this.

OMG what happened?? I was worried sick!

Before I could reply and talk her down from the ledge, another message popped up.

Okay, no. Melodrama alert. It’s not my style.

I wondered why you weren’t replying to any of my messages! I can come over now.

I laughed and shook my head, typing a reply.

No reason to be worried. I’m the one who usually expects the worst, I can’t be rubbing off on you the wrong way.

Yes, come over! As soon as you’re ready.

And bring wine, I don’t have enough here and we’ll need waaaay more for this story.

Now I need to know!

I'm on my way with wine, STAT.

See you in a bit!

She hadn’t been joking when she’d said she was on it, STAT. She knocked on my door less than half an hour later.

“Did you run?” I asked when I opened the door, and she stood in front of me, breathing hard. Her green-and-pink hair was wild, and her face wasn’t made up. She looked so different when she didn’t wear the thick black eyeliner.

“Funny,” she said and scrunched her nose. “I drove. I only ran up the stairs.” She held up two bottles of wine. “White or red?”

“Who said there’s anything wrong with both?”

“I knew from the start we would be best friends and then you say things like that and it reminds me why.”