All Too Well ⏤ Tim Shepard | ✓

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Becca is sipping a glass of lemonade through her straw, listening to Diana talk about her date last night with Bruce. Her eyes are closed, and although she is ecstatic about Diana and Bruce, she can't force herself to listen. Her mind wanders off to the missing piece of their trio.

The third chair is empty. Annie had skipped out on spending their day off lounging in the sun. Yesterday evening, Annie had phoned Becca to tell her she wasn't coming, stating that she was sick. It had been a quick conversation ⏤ something most unusual between the two best friends ⏤ and then had hung up before Becca could ask what was wrong.

A knot remained in Becca's stomach for the rest of the evening, Not even watching The Addams Family reruns with her mother after dinner had distracted her. Even now, hanging out with Diana out the front of their apartment complex, sipping on sweet homemade lemonade Sara had made, distracted Becca from her concerns about Annie.

"You don't think something's wrong with Annie, do ya?" Becca asks, chewing on the end of her straw.

"Annie would tell us if somethin' was wrong," Diana answers, not sharing the same concerns Becca shares. But Diana wasn't the one on the phone with Annie yesterday.

"But why did she hang up on me?"

"She's sick; she probably didn't want ya hearing all that." Diana's nonchalance has Becca wondering if she is overthinking this. "You know Annie is kicking herself that she ain't here enjoying the last day of August with us. We're sippin' on lemonade and she's probably got her head in a bucket chuckin' up."

"You have such a way with words, Di." Becca scrunches her nose up at the mental image as Diana giggles in the chair beside her.

Then another thought strikes her: today is the thirty-first of August; the day George heads back to Michigan for college. She hasn't seen him since the pool party and she assumes he's been keeping a low profile, not wanting to see her. It hurts, but Becca understands. She doesn't think she could stand being around Tim if he told her he wasn't interested.

"George's goin' back to Michigan today," Becca says, picking at a loose thread on the chair cushion.

Diana has stopped giggling. "How do you feel?"

Becca shrugs her shoulders. "Fine, I guess. I mean, I don't feel great for breakin' his heart but I had to be honest with him and myself, ya know? I do feel bad, I didn't mean to ruin his summer."

"You didn't ruin his summer," Diana instantly protests.

Becca shrugs her shoulders. "But I did. I chose Tim over him. I told him I didn't like him after he told me he liked me.

"Don't you start feelin' guilty for your feelings. You can't control who you have feelings for," Diana starts, sounding very much like Annie. "You were honest and kind about it and that's all that matters." She sits upright in her chair and places her empty glass on the grass beside her. "Now, tell me about this date of your's with Timothy Shepard."

Becca's lips pull upwards at the memory of her date two days ago. "It was great. We went to mini golf and afterwards we talked." She doesn't give Diana any details, wanting to keep it to herself. What happened that night was just for them two to know. Nobody else.

Becca knows Diana won't press for details and she doesn't, giving Becca a bright smile. She wiggles her eyebrows. "Does that mean you're officially goin' out?"

Becca frowns. They didn't talk about it that night. After their conversation on the rooftop Tim drove her home, swinging his leather jacket over Becca's shoulders to keep her warm, ignoring her protests that she was fine. The gesture had surprised Becca; she never expected Tim to be chivalrous and Tim had said that Angela would kill him if he knew he let Becca sit there in the cold.