Falling for Ocean Blue [BxB] ✔️

Chapter Thirty six

It's Monday morning and I catch a ride with Soren before he leaves for practice. Kitty is in the backseat, powdering her face frantically, roused from waking up so early.

"I can't believe you won't wait for me!" She cries as she tries to brush mascara through short lashes.

Soren shakes his head.

"You could've taken the bus. That was an option, too."

Kitty kicks the back of his seat, nudging the boy painfully to the right. He scowls and berates her for distracting the driver. This early, they squabble like delinquents. I slip my earphones into both ears and count palm trees as we zoom by a little over the speed limit. Soren is an obnoxious machine in the morning. In school uniform taking pictures of his green smoothie by the time I get downstairs. Even Yvette is stirred by the noise of his blender, two stories up. The Russian housekeeper sneering as she dumps fresh coffee down the garbage disposal because if she doesn't make it, then why exist.

"Remember to hand in that note to Principal," I can hear below the music, "I'd do it, but I'm slammed with practice and lunch duty."

I raise my brow and slip back into the conversation.

"You still have lunch duty?"

Soren sighs.

"Last day. I can't wait for Friday! Are you excited? Seventeen is a big deal."

Kitty nods elatedly.

"Everyone is super jealous. We're leaving on Friday and Austin is loaning us his dad's jet. Plus, the beach house is absolutely perfect. You'll love it, Max. Soren and I used to love vacationing in Rome. We don't do it enough!"

Soren takes a sharp turn, shrewdly cutting Kitty off before clearing his throat and throwing me a quaint smile.

"Friday is just a chill day. Family, cake and sun."

"And the party?" I ask.

Soren sends a biting look in the rear-view mirror. Kitty raises both hands.

"I didn't say anything."

"I heard about it already. Who did you invite?"

"Who didn't we invite? That would be a much shorter list!" Kitty giggles. She taps away at her phone, the sound of acrylic on the plastic screen sends my heart thrashing.

"I hope you didn't invite Juliette."

Soren steals glances in my direction. I see his expression tense in pensive deliberation. He idles on the gas at a yellow light, allowing a line of children to prance across the street. We watch them in terse silence. Kitty raises her brows at me in the rear-view mirror, as if to say, 'here we go'.

"You should've broken up with her a long time ago, Max." He tells me in that omniscient tone.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. They sit in their cavern, aching with annoyance as the light clicks to a green. The movement is jolting, emulating Soren's displeasure. The rest of our journey into school is shrill and overwrought. I take the first opportunity to bolt out of the car when he parks.

"Max!"

I take two steps at a time up the Victorian-style stairwell. He will be waiting for me in our little slice of heaven. My feet race to keep up, tripping over themselves as I navigate the colossal school I once feared. It's second nature to jump over the uneven seventeenth step, and to wave absently at the lunch ladies convening in their yellow bibs.

"Max?"

Suddenly, I'm in the tiny, abandoned music room and he's there, carving his initials into the piano with a switchblade. I have to steal away a moment to catch up, retracing my steps that have brought me three stories too high and too soon.