My Almost Ex

by Piper Rayne

  “I just wish there was a balance,” I said, watching Adam with his friends and the way his teammates hung on every word, as if he was Xavier.

  Cora elbowed me again. Being my best friend meant she knew when to pull me back to sanity and tell me to stop obsessing. “Tell me. What do you want to be?”

  I sat up straighter, excited to tell her my idea. Only Cora would understand why I chose who I did.

  “Frenchy,” I whispered so no one would take my idea.

  Cora stared blankly.

  “From Grease,” I clarified.

  She nodded and a smile formed on her face. I knew she’d get it. “Is this just your brilliant idea to get your hair dyed pink?”

  I nodded.

  “Susan won’t let you.”

  “It’s for a character, and as she says, anything worth doing is worth doing the best.” I smiled proudly as I bit into my fry.

  “She’s going to lock you in your room,” Cora said.

  She had a point. My mom was controlling and I’d been trying to convince her for the last month to let me dye my hair pink. She always said absolutely not.

  “Hey.” Adam kissed my cheek and threw his backpack on the table. “What am I missing?” He stole a fry and popped it into his mouth.

  His sweet eyes and boyish grin stirred butterflies in my stomach even though we’d been a couple for almost a year.

  “That you’re about to be Doody.” Cora laughed.

  “Doody?” Adam asked.

  Toby threw his backpack on the table and leaned across the table. “Who are you gonna be, Shefield?” he asked Cora.

  “What do you care?” she snipped.

  Those two hated one another.

  “Rumor is you’re going with Justin?”

  She smiled and nodded. Justin was class vice president, and although he was a great guy, he wasn’t right for Cora. Cora bossed him around and he followed her around like being vice president meant kissing the president’s ass. “I am. And I heard you’re taking Amara?”

  “Yep.” He stole a fry from her plate, and she narrowed her eyes.

  “Adam, you really need to improve your social circle.” Cora slid her tray away, but we all knew that Toby would try to snag another just to piss her off before he left.

  “What are we gonna be?” Adam asked me, straddling the bench so he was as close to me as he could be without getting in trouble. His hand absentmindedly ran along my lower back.

  “I already told you, you’re Doody,” Cora said, laughing again.

  “What is she talking about, Luce?” Adam took a chicken nugget from my plate and swallowed it in one bite.

  “Well, I figured we could go as characters from Grease.” I shrugged.

  “Isn’t that a movie? I thought the theme was Broadway?” Toby asked.

  “And to think people say you’re a dumb jock.” Cora rolled her eyes. “It was a Broadway play first.”

  “Thank you for the useless tidbit of information.” Toby narrowed his eyes.

  “Well, you should expand your knowledge to other things besides a pigskin ball that flies through the air.”

  Adam snaked his hand around my waist and tugged me closer. I loved that he wasn’t embarrassed to show people how much he loved me. Everyone in town thought we were young and blinded by hormones, but what I felt for Adam wasn’t puppy love.

  “What is she talking about?” he whispered and sneaked in another kiss right below my ear.

  “If you don’t stop, we’re going to get detention for being handsy.”

  He laughed. “They’re not going to chance the game.”

  Sadly, he wasn’t wrong. “I want to be Frenchy.”

  “Frenchy?”

  “You’re going to drop out and go to beauty school?” Toby asked.

  “Whoa, look whose light bulb just turned on!” Cora gave him a saccharine smile.

  “Tell me, Shefield, what’s a bootleg play?”

  “Right after you tell me the chemical formula for glucose?”

  “Forget them, who is Frenchy?” Adam asked.

  I slid my tray over to him because he would eat the majority of my lunch anyway. “She’s a character from Grease.”

  “I thought Sandy was from Grease?”

  I was surprised that he’d been paying attention when I made him watch the movie with Chevelle and me a few months earlier. I’d thought he was just trying to feel me up under the blanket the whole time. I guess he could multitask. “She’s the main character.”

  He ate the rest of my chicken nuggets as though he hadn’t devoured his entire lunch minutes earlier.

  “Frenchy is the one who dyes…” I nodded and he shook his head. “Luce, we’re Danny and Sandy, not Frenchy and whoever.”

  “Doody, and Doody is still a T-bird.”

  “But he’s not the T-bird. Plus, if you’re Sandy, you can wear black leather pants.” His eyebrows waggled up and down.

  I rolled my eyes. “But then I can’t dye my hair.”

  Adam understood how badly I’d wanted to dye my hair since a few other girls in our school had done it. But it meant I had to bleach the color out of my hair first, so my mom was against it.

  “I’ll admit I like that it will piss your mom off,” he said, which I understood.

  Mom hated that I was dating Adam and tried to convince me daily how we were just young love and nothing would come of it. But I knew different.

  “So can we?” I asked.

  He blew out a breath and glanced at Toby across the table, who had somehow gotten his hands on Cora’s tray.

  “You might as well put a ‘kick me’ sign on your back,” Toby remarked.

  I put my palm in the air to shut him up. Adam glanced from Toby to me. I bit my lip and gave him my best “come on” look.

  He sighed. “Fine.”

  I threw my arms around his neck and cast kisses all along his face. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

  “You owe me,” he whispered.

  “Miss Davis. Mr. Greene. Please separate.” Mr. Turner stood at the end of our table.

  We moved apart and apologized.

  The lunch bell went off and Adam picked up my tray as Toby took Cora’s. I had science with Toby and Adam had math.

  Adam glanced both ways down the hall at our lockers. “See you later, French.”

  He kissed me right on the lips, then slid his tongue inside my mouth. Afterward, he winked and took off down the hall, swallowed up by the class who loved their star football player.

  I held my books to my chest and sighed. He was mine.

  “You really have him by the balls,” Toby said next to me.

  I pushed off the locker and walked with him to science. “It’s called love. You should find it.”

  He cackled so loudly, everyone looked at us. “You live in some imaginary bubble. Both of you.”

  Toby was just one of many in our town who didn’t believe in us, but I was sure we’d prove them wrong. We weren’t typical high school sweethearts and they’d all see it at our ten-year reunion when Adam and I had a houseful of kids and were still as in love as we were that day.

  I guess maybe I was the one who’d been wrong.

  “Hey, baby,” I answer my phone, walking away from Lucy.

  “Why are you calling me baby?” my stepsister Nikki asks.

  I climb into my truck and put the keys in the ignition, trying not to look up, but I fail like always, taking one last glimpse of Lucy as she stands in the middle of the parking lot in her mud-covered clothes, staring at her feet.

  “What’s up?” I ask.

  “Don’t play stupid. Did you think I was Alicia or something?”

  “Nope.”

  My stepsister won’t ever find out that I called her baby to somehow get back at Lucy. What for? For the part of her that doesn’t remember that she broke my heart, I guess. I’m a terrible human being.

  “Whatever,” she says. “Anyway, I’m calling to warn you that I’m outing this whole Lucy
situation tomorrow morning on my show.”

  I blow out a breath and pull out of the parking lot, putting her on Bluetooth once I know Lucy can’t hear our conversation outside of the car. “Of course you are.”

  “I can’t let people say I’m playing favorites. Cade already got those rumblings started when I held the story on Presley last year.”

  I roll my eyes. Nikki is a radio personality at the local station, and part of her schtick is this gossip piece she calls the “Scandals of Sunrise.”

  “It’s fine. What are you going to say?”

  I can’t blame Nikki. Cade despises what she does, but someone in this town is gonna spread the gossip. As far as I’m concerned, it might as well be a family member. Plus, it’s better than one gossipy secret turning into a game of telephone and becoming something else entirely at the other end. At least with Nikki’s show, everyone knows she tries to make sure her sources are legit.

  “I’m just saying that she’s back and doesn’t remember why she left. It might help her too. Everyone in town expects her to be her old self and open her arms and hearts to everyone. I heard some stirrings at The Grind this morning about how she’s turned cold and mean. Then someone from the Gossip Brigade told that person that she doesn’t know who she is.”

  Fuck. Figures everything would get convoluted. I’m actually thankful Nikki will get the real story out there. “Well, thanks for the warning.”

  “Sure thing. Figured you two would want to know, so if you see her, maybe you can tell her.”

  My hands tighten on the steering wheel. “I’m not gonna see her.”

  “I heard she was going back to Idaho?” She’s digging for information now. “And just so you know, Ethel and Dori had her cornered at Two Brothers and an Egg this morning, so watch out. You know those two.”

  I huff, wondering if Grandma could work her magic with her friend Dori. But unless I fall off a horse too and forget the pain Lucy caused me, there’s no hope of rekindling a relationship between us. I’d always be afraid she’d up and leave me again when she regained her memories.

  “You’d have to ask her. I’m cool with it, Nikki, but I’m not gonna be one of your sources.”

  “I was just being a nice sister. It’s a fine line.” There’s an edge to her tone, which I understand.

  “You do know one day you’re going to find yourself on the other side of this, right? And then you’ll feel how we do.” I stop at a stop sign and turn right.

  “It’s not like I’m someone famous and I’m telling the whole world, Adam. It’s Sunrise Bay.”

  Having this argument with her is ridiculous, especially since I don’t really care. I’m just not gonna let her swindle information out of me. “I gotta go to work.”

  “Fine.”

  I hang up without saying goodbye like any good sibling in a snit with another one.

  I don’t really have to go to work today, so I go to the only place where someone might be on my side. To people who understand what it was like to be left behind with no explanation.

  After driving through town to the other side of the bay, I pull in front of the house to find her outside with chalk in her hand, drawing on the driveway. I park the truck at the bottom of the driveway and climb out.

  “I figured I’d see you soon,” Cora says, dropping the chalk and standing.

  “Yeah, what the fuck is going on, right?” I glance at the little guy at her ankles. “Sorry.”

  She shakes her head and steps around her son, hugging me. “It’s okay. His dad has a worse mouth than that.” She squeezes me tightly then releases me.

  I sit down on the stairs to the porch. “Tell me what to do.”

  She sighs and sits next to me. “I’m not sure.”

  Cora tells me how she ran into Lucy downtown earlier with my grandma and Dori. That she remembered Cora doesn’t surprise me—the two were best friends. But Lucy didn’t remember Cora being married or being pregnant with Brody.

  Hard to believe Brody is already almost a year old. He’s like the marker of when my life went to shit and my best friend started a new segment of his.

  I rise from the stairs and sit with Brody on the cold ground. Taking a piece of chalk, I draw a little something. I haven’t drawn in forever.

  “He tries to eat the chalk sometimes, but you know me. I’m still gonna be the crazy mom who tries to get him to read by age two.”

  I laugh because that’s Cora. I was as surprised as Toby when she decided to stay home with Brody after he was born. Cora was always determined to conquer the world. The classmate most likely to succeed outside of Sunrise Bay. She went away to college but returned after a couple years. Ended up having a few classes with Toby and somehow their dislike for each other turned into love.

  “Nothing wrong with that,” I say, drawing a sun and clouds, a mountain range in the back.

  “You were always good at drawing,” Cora says, sitting down and plopping Brody in her lap. She takes the chalk out of his mouth and places it in the bin closest to me.

  “A long time ago.”

  “Not that long ago. You’re only twenty-six.”

  Lucky for me, Toby pulls up in the driveway.

  “It’s nice that real estate lets him swing by anytime,” I say.

  She laughs. “I think Brody and I cramp his style. Before the baby, I think he enjoyed coming home when I was still at work. Now he just comes home for lunch every day.”

  “Greene, what the hell are you doing at my house in the middle of the day?” Toby walks around his fancy SUV in a suit.

  Sometimes I wonder if it was Cora who got his act together, but happiness looks good on them both. “Just chalking it up with my guy, Brody.”

  “She was trying to get a crayon in his hand the other day.” He bends down and kisses the top of Cora’s head before bending farther to pluck Brody out of his mom’s lap and throw him up in the air.

  “Careful, he just ate chalk,” Cora says.

  “Just let the kid enjoy life.” Toby holds Brody above his head, then brings him down. I’d hoped Brody would’ve done me a solid and thrown up on his dad just to bring some humor to my life, but all he’s got is a drooling chin.

  Cora stands, brushing her butt off with her hands. “I’ll go fix lunch. You staying, Adam?”

  “Yeah, he is,” Toby answers for me.

  “I guess I am.”

  Cora takes Brody and disappears inside, and Toby sits on the stairs.

  “So?” Toby asks.

  “She’s back.” I throw my head in my hands, tugging at the strands of my hair. “I have no idea how to handle all this. She thinks we’re still married. She thinks we’re happy.”

  Toby sighs, resting his forearms on his thighs, leaning his body forward like me. “Maybe this is some cosmic force bringing you guys back together. Karma or some shit like that.”

  I tip my head up to look at him, giving him a ‘what the hell are you talking about?’ expression.

  “I’m serious, you and Lucy, you guys were just so… perfect together.”

  I stand. “Until she left.”

  “I still think there’s a reason for that, and she’s just not saying what it is.”

  Toby and his damn theories. I think he doesn’t want to see the situation for what it is because of fear. Fear that if Lucy could up and leave me one day, then Cora could do the same.

  “She stopped loving me. I didn’t make her happy. And losing her memories doesn’t change that.”

  He leans back, his forearms on the step above where he’s sitting. “I’m not suggesting it does, but let’s say she never regains that memory? You could get what you’ve wanted all this time.”

  “What?” My head whips in his direction.

  “It’s not like you’re a vault. I know you still love her.”

  “I’ve moved on. I’ve got Alicia now.”

  He chuckles. “You don’t love Alicia.”

  “I could… maybe.”

  “Bullshit. I hate to giv
e you the bad news, but there’s been one woman your entire life, and that’s Lucy Davis.”

  I refrain from saying she’s technically still a Greene. That would just make his point further.

  “Maybe if you admit that to yourself, you could think more clearly.”

  “And what would you do, oh wise one?” I cross my arms.

  “If it was Cora, you mean?”

  I blow out an annoyed breath. “Yes, if it was Cora.”

  “Easy. I’d go along with the story that we’re still married, and we’d live happily ever after. Then if she ever did get her memory back, I’d just have to lock her in a closet until she came to her senses.”

  “You’d deceive her?” A smile tips my lips because I actually envision it happening.

  “She’s my world. Hell, if it wasn’t for her, I’d be facedown in my own vomit. That woman saw something in me I didn’t even know was there.”

  “I’m not sure any of us knew it was there.”

  He picks up a piece of chalk on the stair and throws it at me. “Hey, asshole, you’re the one who wants advice.”

  “Not if it includes ignoring reality.”

  The door opens and Cora comes out, then she hands us each a bottle of water.

  “Where’s the beer?” I ask.

  “It’s noon.” She sits down next to her husband and he swings his arm between her legs, resting the side of his body against hers and his hand against her calf. “You two fix this?” Doubt is clear in her voice.

  “Don’t lose your memory, otherwise Toby is gonna lock you up in a closet. He can’t live without you.”

  She looks at him and kisses him. “Same.”

  “You’re both delusional.” I shake my head and they laugh.

  Cora stands from the stairs and meets me at the bottom. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I am the smartest one here, so here it goes. You ready to hear it?”

  “I’m ready for anything,” I say.

  “You need to help her. I know that you might end up right where you were a year ago at the end of this, but you know as much as we do that you’re going to help her. You love her still, so let’s stop pretending that you hate her and wish her ill. It’s killing you to see her struggling.”

  Goddamn, Cora. “I fucking hate you.”