Page 5 of Open Water
I pulled out my phone.
And I just stood there, holding it, thinking about all the conversations I still owed people. The truths I was still carrying alone. Emily had walked in here with her anger and her hurt and her questions, and she'd walked out lighter because she'd said every single one of them out loud.
Maybe that was what brave looked like. Not the big gestures, punching Marcus at a party or breaking into a server room or rowing three miles on the Charles while scouts watched. Just walking up to someone's door on a Sunday night and saying the real thing.
I could do that. Probably. Maybe…
Chapter 2: Alex
The Bluebird smelled the way it always did. Griddle grease, burnt coffee, and something sweet from the pie case that had probably been sitting there since Tuesday.
Ethan was already in our booth. He had his phone flat on the table and a basket of fries he'd started without me.
"You're late," he said.
"Ten minutes."
"Twelve. I counted."
I slid in across from him. The vinyl made that sound, the one that it always made. Ethan raised an eyebrow like I'd done something obscene.
"Charming," he said.
"It's the booth."
"Sure it is."
The waitress came. We ordered burgers. She wrote it down without looking at us and left.
I stole one of his fries.
"So," Ethan said. "Fourth place."
"Fourth place."
"At the Head of the Charles."
"Yes, Ethan. I was there."
"I'm just making sure you're hearing yourself. Because you've been walking around campus this week like someone who got a B-plus on a midterm, not someone who just placed top five in the biggest head race in the country."
He wasn't wrong. I'd been muted about it, not because I wasn't proud, but because the pride was tangled up with everything else. My father at the reception. Liam's head on my shoulder.Next semester's arrangements.Not to mention the person threatening me and Liam over text. Every good thing that happened now came with a shadow attached to it, and I was getting tired of squinting past the shadow to see the sun.
"It was a good race," I said.
"It was an incredible race. I was there. I filmed it. I have footage of you and Liam crossing the finish line that I'm honestly thinking about submitting to festivals because the look on your face—"
"Don't."
"I'm kidding." He wasn't entirely kidding. "But seriously. You two were something else out there."
The burgers came. Deb set them down with the mechanical efficiency of someone who'd done this ten thousand times and would do it ten thousand more.
I picked up mine. Took a bite. Let the silence sit for a second.
"Hey," I said. "I never thanked you. For the room thing. In Boston."
Ethan paused mid-fry. "What room thing?"
