Chapter 2

Roughly around 7:00 pm, the bus arrived at the station. I dragged my suitcase to the bed-and-breakfast I'd booked in advance.

The owner combed through his computer for a long while before looking up at me. "Your reservation was canceled this afternoon."

I went rigid. "It was canceled?"

"Yeah, you informed us your itinerary changed, and you weren't coming here anymore."

I pulled up the group chat.

The last message was still the salt lake photo Willow had sent that afternoon. No one had mentioned changing the itinerary.

I called Landon. He didn't answer until the second call.

It was noisy on his end, and I could vaguely hear Willow singing in the background.

"Have you arrived?"

"Yeah. Where are you guys?"

"We're in the neighboring city," he responded matter-of-factly. "We ran into a few tourists this afternoon who told us there's a music festival here tonight, so we made a last-minute detour."

I tightened my grip on the handle of my suitcase. "Why didn't any of you tell me?"

He paused for two seconds. "No one told you?"

As soon as his words fell, Clyde's voice came through. "I thought Mason told her."

Mason immediately chimed in. "I thought Landon told her."

The three of them burst into laughter on the other end of the line.

Here we went again.

During our sophomore-year New Year's celebration, they had changed restaurants at the last minute, and I'd waited for them at the original one for 40 minutes. In the end, all I received was—"I thought you knew."

I'd thrown a huge fit that night. They'd made it up to me with a meal. From then on, whenever this situation happened again, I stopped pressing them for explanations.

"Find somewhere to stay on your own tonight. We'll pick you up at 9:00 am tomorrow," Landon said.

"Alright."

After hanging up, the owner asked, "Do you still need a room, miss?"

I nodded. "If you have a room, I'll take it."

Ultimately, all I could find was a small inn in the old part of town. It didn't have an elevator, so I hauled my suitcase up to the fourth floor on my own. Its handle dug into my hand until my palm was bright red.

I had just walked into the room when a message popped up in the group chat.

Willow sent a picture of a table full of barbecue. "It's too bad Paige isn't here."

Clyde: "We'll make it up to her tomorrow."

Mason: "She isn't a picky eater; she'll eat anything."

Landon sent a laughing-with-tears emoji.

I set my phone on the table and took a shower.

Before going to bed, Landon finally texted me. "Wait for us outside at 9:00 am. Don't sleep through it."

I replied with a simple, "Alright."

…

I'd already checked out at 8:40 am the following day.

9:00 am came and went, but no one showed up. I was still waiting for them at 9:30 am.

I sat on my suitcase and waited until 10:07 am before Landon finally returned my call.

His voice was still husky from having just woken up. "What's wrong?"

"Weren't you guys supposed to be here at 9:00 am?"

Silence fell on the other end of the line. "Shit! I completely forgot about that."

He yawned. "Willow's stomach was acting up last night; she kept us up until past 3:00 am."

I instinctively asked, "How is she doing now?"

"She's fine." He paused for a beat before continuing, "By the way, we're not going to pick you up anymore. Our destination for the day is closer to where we are, so you should just hail a rideshare and come over on your own. If you don't, we'll waste two hours going back and forth."

Willow whispered in the background, "Maybe we should pick her up, after all. She's been waiting for so long."

Clyde interjected, "Your stomach has just settled down. Don't aggravate it with another long car ride."

Mason chimed in, "She can make it on her own."

I looked at the traffic light across the street. "Got it."

Landon hesitated for a moment. "Are you upset?"

"No."

"Alright then. Call me when you get here."

After hanging up, I sat back down on my suitcase. This time, I didn't send my location in the group chat.