She throws the remaining rotten apple, grabs the basket of Honeycrisps, and we’re running, no, flying through the orchard, branches scratching at our arms as we go. We break through the trees into the parking lot, hauling ass up a small grassy hill to where her grandpa’s old truck is parked.
I dive into the passenger seat, fighting to close the door as the engine growls awake, and Blake rips out of the spot. She pulls a hard turn, the truck skidding out of the parking lot, kicking up a cloud of dust behind us.
I glance out the window to see Matt, Jake, Olivia, and Ryan standing stock-still in the parking lot by Jake’s car, their mouths agape as they watch us speed away.
I lean back in the seat, my chest heaving as I look over at Blake, the two of us bursting out into laughter.
I hold up the perfect apple triumphantly.
“You’ve gotta try it!” Blake says.
“Try it?” I say, raising my eyebrows in surprise.
“Yeah! I mean, what else are you going to do? Let it rot away on a shelf?”
I shrug. That’s definitely a fair point. I bring the apple to my lips and take an enormous bite, the chunk falling from my lips as the most bitter, disgusting, rotten taste fills my mouth.
“Oh my God,” I say as Blake wheezes with laughter. “Oh my God, that is so bad. Like… raw-sewage bad.” I grab a Honeycrisp out of the basket, trying to get the taste out of my mouth. “No wonder they don’t want anyone picking apples from it.”
I hold it out to Blake, and she shakes her head, wiping tears away from the corner of her eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding me. This tastes like ass. Here, try it!”
I roll down the window and chuck the apple out onto the side of the road, watching it disappear in the rearview mirror before I pull the list out of my pocket and press the paper up against the dashboard, grabbing a pen from Blake’s center console.
Then I put a small green check next to “10. Steal an apple from the First Tree at Snyder’s Orchard,” that disgusting apple bringing me one step closer to completing the list, my friends’ expressions in the parking lot a moment ago making it more than worth it.
“That reminds me!” Blake says as we pull up at Nina’s. “I talked to Jake yesterday at work about cliff jumping, and he said there was a cool spot we could go to at Huckabee State Park. Biggest in the county. You want to go on Wednesday?”
Biggest in the county. My heart jumps at the thought, the bravado I had a moment ago slipping away. Fast.
“I don’t know if I’d trust Jake’s judgment,” I say, hesitating. “I mean, the guy was just covered in rotten apples and happy about it.”
She laughs at that, nodding. “I confirmed it with two other people just to be sure.”
I think of me practically crouching in a tree to hide from my friends, the softness in Matt’s eyes for the tiniest moment when he looked at me, waiting for me to finally say something. I can’t keep running away from cliffs. From burly football guys covered in mushy apples.
If Mom got over her fear, if the list made her face what she was most afraid of, maybe it can help me do that too. Maybe this list could be the reset button I’ve wanted for so long.
The one that would actually make a difference, pushing me to steal sacred apples and tackle giant cliffs and to actually talk to unruly-haired ex-boyfriends instead of avoiding them.
“Yeah,” I say, smiling at her. “Let’s do it.”
12
I’m barely through the front door after dropping off the apples at Nina’s when my phone buzzes noisily. Kiera. For the first time since she left, I totally forgot it was Sunday.
I quickly swipe right to answer, and wow.
“This quality!” I say, seeing the freckle over Kiera’s left eyebrow, her long, dark eyelashes. This is a first in Misty Oasis call history.
“Todd has a hotspot!” Kiera exclaims, excited. “So we’ll never have to worry about a dropped call again.”
“What an actual miracle,” I say, relieved that things aren’t weird after how we left them last week. “How’s… camp?”
I wiggle my eyebrows to let her know I’m referring to Todd and not an update on that kid who took a poison ivy plant to the eyeball. If she’s calling, though, and from his hotspot, it means the news is definitely going to be good.
She glances behind her, checking to make sure the coast is clear.
“It’s going great. Like, I think we’re gonna make this a year-round thing great?”
“Oh my gosh! That’s awesome.”
This is huge. Kiera’s never dated anyone before. I feel a small stab in my chest, jealousy that I’m not right by her side at Misty Oasis for it. Her first boyfriend.
“I know! I almost don’t want to come back,” she says, while I nod, pretending that doesn’t cause another small stab, straight through my mental countdown calendar.
“I saw Matt today,” I offer as I plop down on my couch, and Kiera leans forward in interest. “We didn’t talk for long, but he gave me this… this look. I don’t know. I just felt like it was a sign.”
“Was he alone? Or was the group with him?”
I let out a long sigh. “They were with him. Things were super awkward, though. Thank God Blake was there to distract them.”
Kiera nods. “Oh, cool. You two been hanging out a lot?”
“Yeah, actually,” I say, smiling as I think of our Friday adventure at the bookstore, unpacking at her house afterward, sweat still lining my brow from our getaway this afternoon. “She can speak French! And her house is super cool. Honestly, she’s really cool. I thought with you away all summer, I’d pretty much just be hiding out in my house, but I’m not. I mean, we’re going cliff jumping this Wednesday. And I didn’t read a
