They Canceled My Ticket, I Canceled Them novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Seven O'Clock

I pulled my shirt over my head and went down the loft ladder in my bare feet.

Wes followed, and he stopped on the third rung and stayed there, a shape in the dark.

I opened the door.

Lacey stood on the step in a long cardigan, with her hair in a loose braid and mascara down one cheek.

She saw the sawdust on my knees and my jacket on the floor behind me.

She saw Wes on the ladder.

For one second her face had nothing on it at all.

Then it filled with feeling, quick and soft.

"Oh, Nor," she said. "Oh, honey. I was afraid of this."

"Afraid of what?"

"That you'd go to him." She came in without being asked. "Can I sit? I can't stand."

I did not say yes.

She sat on the bucket anyway and pressed a tissue under each eye.

"Nine summers ago I never told you the whole thing," she said. "I couldn't. You were so happy that week. You had stars in your eyes."

Behind me, I heard Wes's boots touch the floor.

"Wes didn't come to the dock that night because he left with someone else," Lacey said. "A girl from the marina. I saw them drive off. I came back to the cabin and you were already sitting out there, and I just couldn't. So I told you he'd been called away."

"You told me he'd gotten tired of it."

"I told you what I could."

I heard my own breathing.

It was a very good story.

I almost believed it, because it explained everything, and because it made her the friend who had stood in the dark and chosen to spare me.

← Chapter 8 · All chapters · Chapter 10 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend