Anything but Ordinary(32)

Bryce opened her mouth, then closed it, losing her words in his deep blue eyes and long lashes. We should, she thought. She felt whole here, with him. She wanted to be in his world of dry riverbeds and old bridges.

He turned toward Bryce, putting a hand on her shoulder. Her thoughts stopped. She didn’t move a muscle. He was breathing through his nose, his lips turning up at the corners. His eyes found hers, then traveled down her face to her lips, then back up to her eyes.

“I missed you so much,” he said, his voice almost a whisper, and his mouth connected with hers.

Bryce didn’t pull away. Her blood coursed hotly through her veins, matching the heat outside so that her skin blended into the wet air, the sun-soaked rocks.

Greg put his hands on her waist, tucking them under her shirt to find her bare skin. His lips made a path to her jaw, her ear, her neck. A sound rumbled at the edge of their hearing, growing in intensity as Bryce wrapped her arms around his back.

Suddenly it ripped past them, taking over all their senses, pulling them apart.

“A train!” Greg called over the roar and squeak of wheels over the track, and they lifted their eyes toward the metal blur.

When it had passed, Bryce and Greg looked at each other. In the sudden silence, she remembered herself.

“What’s Gabby doing today?” she said, swallowing.

Greg scratched his head, looking uncomfortable. “She’s with her grandparents out in Hendersonville.”

Bryce nodded. Finally, she said quietly, “What do you really want, Greg?”

He dropped his eyes downward. “I don’t know.”

He leaned back on the dry grass and started talking up to the sky, almost as if Bryce wasn’t there. “My parents—they’re pretty excited I’m settling down. Moving to a big city with lots of jobs. They didn’t even think I’d graduate. Hell, they didn’t think I’d even make it to college.”

Greg’s family was originally from a tiny town a few hours from Nashville, out in the deep, deep country. He didn’t have much money growing up. His parents didn’t even have a TV. He and his brother spent most of their time on their bikes, finding little ponds to go for swims, or climbing trees. He took to diving as he took to every other sport, like he’d done it all his life. When his parents saw how crowds would gather to watch him do flips off the high dive at the community pool, they scraped their money together to move him to Nashville so he could practice with a real diving team.

“It’s good that your mom and dad don’t have to worry about you,” Bryce said with a sad smile.

Greg shook his head. “I’m not saying…” He sat up. “Bryce, that was never really my dream. It was theirs, and it was Gabby’s. I’ve never really known what I wanted.” He blinked. “Except for you.”

Bryce didn’t move from his grasp. She wanted to go back to five minutes ago, before the train had hurtled through, breaking them apart. But the heat of kissing him had faded, and Bryce had begun to put dusty space between them, inch by inch. Space enough for the thought of Gabby to breeze through.

Greg’s face was hopeful as he asked, “Maybe we could get away from here, go somewhere else?”

“But where? How would we live?” With all the rigidity of their training, performing flawless dive after flawless dive in a square pool of pristine water, Bryce understood why Greg craved looseness the way he did. But they couldn’t just drive to Louisiana and float down a river. Life didn’t work like that.

She saw the uncertainty creep back into Greg’s face.

“You made a decision.” She breathed in deeply. “You asked Gabby to marry you. You made plans to move to D.C. You can’t just…undo that.”

Greg was looking at her, his eyebrows knit together. “I couldn’t do anything if I thought I wasn’t going to see you again. Gabby or no Gabby. I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning.”

His eyes had a fear to them, a fear and a longing. “I could never not talk to you,” Bryce said. “You were my boyfriend, but you were also my friend.” She sighed, giving what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “Maybe that’s all we can be now.”

Greg just shook his head, stood, and chucked another rock down the empty riverbed. It skittered over the dry rocks. But he didn’t argue or try to change her mind.

The sky began to pinken above them as they made their way back to the car. By the time they pulled onto River Drive, it had turned a midnight blue. The truck rolling to a stop in front of her house was almost a shock to Bryce. This would have been the point where Greg kissed her and told her to sneak out to meet him later in the barn. She would say maybe, I’ve got homework, but what she really meant was yes. Yes, of course. She always meant yes.

But Gabby was probably home from Hendersonville by now. She was probably calling Greg, wondering where he was. Bryce pushed open the truck door and hopped out of the cab.

Greg leaned toward her, hair falling in his eyes. He reached out his hand.

Bryce took it, squeezed, and matched her voice to the cool quiet. “’Bye, friend,” she said, and then she let go.





ryce’s palm filled with a creamy, fluffy pile of mousse. Her hands shook as she rubbed them together, feeling the airy liquid ooze between her fingers. Gently, she applied it to her hair, scrunching the ends up to touch her roots, letting the blond strands fall, curlier than before.