It was nothing like YouTube.
“When you’re ready, tip the kennel at an angle and open the door. Best if you stay behind it. She won’t be too keen on seeing people.”
I frowned. “I thought it would be a little more…”
“Little more what?” asked Thelma, her brows furrowed.
“Just a little more,” I said sadly. I don’t know why I cared so much about the bird. It wasn’t like the hawk and I had bonded. It didn’t know my hand in the puppet from Simon or Thelma’s. I hadn’t named it and I sure as heck hadn’t stroked its feathers.
Maybe I felt connected to the hawk because it had brought me to the refuge in the first place. If Nora had never hit it with her truck then we wouldn’t have had to stop at the refuge.
If it weren’t for Thelma and the birds, Simon and I might never have found our way back to each other.
I looked back at Simon. He stood shivering in the cold. Snow dusted the top of his shoulders, turning his glasses into a spotty windshield. But he was smiling, big and real, like the photo from our middle school dance. We didn’t need Key Club, unfinished essays, or ailing birds to give us a reason to hang out anymore.
I took a deep breath, leaned over and sprung the latch from the kennel. The hawk didn’t hesitate. She hopped out into the snow, took a series of quick steps and launched into the air. I thought she would continue flying, out past the property line and back toward Nora’s farm. But instead, she quickly arced her wings and perched on an outstretched tree branch, not 50 feet from us.
She cocked her head to the side and for just a moment our eyes met.
I felt Simon’s hand slip into mine as he and Thelma came to stand beside me.
“She knows you,” said Thelma, smiling at the bird with the same reverence she did every creature that came through her door.
Within seconds the hawk returned to the air, leaving the three of us to watch her flight until the snow and the trees ahead swallowed her whole.
Simon
Lucy handled the release well, and I knew she would. She was never someone to back down from something just because it was hard.
After we watched the hawk drift away, we left Thelma and headed over to Addy’s house to hang out with the rest of the group. We were all broke from Christmas, and it was too cold to do anything, but the girls wanted to catch up after the holidays. So, we agreed on pizzas ordered in and a casual hangout in Addy’s den.
When Lucy and I walked in together, it was pretty clear she already filled the girls in on our relationship status. Nora beamed proudly from the kitchen counter when she spotted our linked hands. Addy came out of her bedroom and looked pointedly at me as she blurted out, “Who invited you?” Which I had learned was Addy for “glad you came.”
Lucy threw a bag of tortilla chips at her head. “Don’t talk to my boyfriend like that.” Then, she leaned toward me to press her lips against mine. I’d never get sick of this, I promised myself. Not even a little until the day I died.
Gray was running late since he had to take his mom to work before coming over, so while the girls talked in the kitchen, I wandered over to the sectional in the den to sit down. I didn’t notice Max sitting on the opposite reclining leather chairs until my butt hit the seat.
He gestured at me with an awkward wave. “How’s it going?”
I waved back and pulled out my phone. Max and I still felt like acquaintances. He was nice enough, but he was the kind of guy who ran alone. He was funny—hilarious even, and clearly didn’t give one iota for what other people thought, and I appreciated that about him.
The only thing I did know about Max was that he had a reputation for being a bit...popular with the girls. And maybe that’s why he and I didn’t hang out or click from the beginning. I was a year older than him and was in my first real relationship. He probably had more girlfriends than I had volunteer hours on record.
Nora walked into the den and scanned the couch and coffee table.
“Looking for something?” I asked.
“Did Lucy bring a bag? She has something for me.”
It took a moment to register, but then I remembered watching Lucy pack her glittery notebook in her backpack when I stopped at her house to pick her up.
“Oh, not that thing again,” Max whined from the sofa. “Don’t give it to her, Simon. No good comes from it.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” I laughed as I pulled Lucy’s bag from the floor in front of me. I fished the notebook out and handed it to Nora. She shot Max a dirty look. He tossed a piece of popcorn at her which she swatted with a giggle. Then, he kept tossing piece after piece, which she tried to catch in her mouth, until on the umpteenth try she actually got it and they rejoiced with laughter.
As I watched them, it didn’t take long before I started to feel very third wheel-ish. Max almost seemed to perk up immediately when Nora walked in, and I was almost shocked at how long it took me to notice that. Did anyone else notice it?
And more importantly, did Max know what Nora had written in her journal?
After she walked back to the kitchen, Max looked at me. “If I knew you had that thing, I would have made you help me destroy it.”
“Well, it did bring me and Lucy together. And Addy and Gray.”
“Uhhh...no. You and Lucy would have ended up together regardless, and Addy only ended up with Gray because he forgave her for what she wrote in that book. It’s a curse.”
I smiled. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but the next goal is likely going to end in a relationship too…”
His face dropped, and he sat up, his Mountain Dew gripped tightly in his fingers. “Why do you say that?”
“Oh, I’m not going to spoil it, but if you really hate those goals, you might want to read it before you destroy it.”
He glared at me, his eyebrows cocked inward like I just told him I was George Washington. Then, I caught him glancing sideways at the girls, huddled around the book, clearly drawing a big fat line through Lucy’s goals.
A moment later, Gray stepped into the room, and Addy did her usual wrap around him like a band-aid bit. He smiled down at her before they started kissing, which always had a way of clearing the room.
Nora handed the box of pizza to Max who put it on the coffee table between us. Then, she dropped into the seat next to him, and I noticed the way he stiffened when she did.
Suddenly, Lucy plopped down next to me and nestled herself against my chest in the way that I loved. I don’t know if what Max said about us ending up together regardless was true or not, but I still felt grateful for that stupid book. No matter what she crossed off on those pages, it was never about her getting my forgiveness. It was about pulling me back into her life, where I belonged.
Squad Goals: Promised by Prom
The final installment in the Squad Goals series coming in February 2020!
Also by Jessica Bucher
The Hereafter
Notes of Magic
Grains of Fire
Twelfth Knight
Also by M.F. Lorson
Sway
Off Center
Stage Kiss
The Exchange
The Hunter’s Daughter
About Jessica Bucher
Jessica Bucher is a young adult author and teacher who loves coffee, traveling, and her rambunctious Goldendoodle.
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About M.F. Lorson
M.F. Lorson is the Director of a public library in eastern Oregon. When she isn’t writing, she’s reading, mostly The Wheels On the Bus, over and over again to her two littles.
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Nerdy by New Year Page 16