Great.
Well, that’s about it. There’s nobody else I can call. Hudson was my one lifeline, and he’s not answering for whatever reason. Now I have to figure out some way to get home on my own.
Just as I’m about to sit on the road and burst into tears, my phone starts to ring. Nathaniel! I knew he would come through for me. I knew he wouldn’t just leave me here.
But then I get a surprise: it’s not Nathaniel’s name on the screen. It’s Hudson.
“Addie?” He sounds tired and confused. “Did you…did you just call me?”
“Yes.” I squeeze the phone so tightly, I’m scared it might crack. “I… I need your help.”
“It’s three in the morning,” he points out, not helpfully.
“I know.”
He lets out an extended yawn. “So what do you need at three in the morning?”
“I need you to pick me up.”
“Uh, my parents aren’t going to let me take the car at three in the morning. And I only have a limited license, so technically, I’m not even allowed to drive.”
“I know.”
There is a long silence on the other line. “Where are you?”
I check my GPS. If I didn’t have that, I would have absolutely no idea where I am. I recite the address for him. I can tell he’s plugging it into his own phone, and then he swears under his breath.
“Addie, it’s going to take me close to an hour to get there.”
“I know.”
I hold my breath, waiting to see what he’ll decide. Hudson and I aren’t friends anymore. His girlfriend seems to despise me. And if he gets caught sneaking out of the house with the car in the middle of the night, he will be grounded, like, forever. He has about a million reasons to say no. And yet…
“I’m on my way,” he says.
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter Sixty-Two
ADDIE
HE MAKES it in forty-eight minutes.
He must not have been speeding, because if he got pulled over, they would probably yank his license entirely. But knowing Hudson, he was going as fast as he dared. When his broken-down car pulls up in front of me, I almost cry with relief.
As I slide into the passenger seat next to Hudson, I can see how tired he looks. His white-blond hair is all disheveled, and he’s got sleep in his eyes. It’s not surprising, considering I pulled him out of bed.
“Thank you so much,” I tell him. “I… I owe you one.”
He gives me a look.
“One more,” I quickly add.
His eyes travel down my body, from my dirty and blistered hands to my muddy jeans and finally my sneakers covered in pumpkin guts. But he doesn’t comment. He simply gets back on the road and starts driving again.
We drive in silence for the next several minutes. The radio is on, and because it’s so late, there are hardly any commercials. I lean my head against the headrest, letting the music wash over me.
“So,” Hudson says, “what was that all about?”
“It’s…um…a long story.”
“Well, we’re going to be driving for the next hour, so we’ve got time.”
I wish more than anything that I could tell Hudson everything that happened tonight. I wish I could tell him and he would understand and then tell me exactly what to do. We used to have that kind of friendship—the kind where he would do absolutely anything for me. But then he did do absolutely anything for me, and now we’re not even friends anymore.
“I made some bad decisions,” I finally say.
“Okay…”
I can’t tell him. I want to, but I can’t. In spite of the fact that Nathaniel left me out here, I can’t betray him.
So instead of answering his question, I turn away and look out the window. We don’t say another word during the entire drive. At one point about fifteen minutes before we reach our destination, his phone buzzes, and I’m scared his parents have realized he’s gone and now he’s grounded for all eternity. But he doesn’t even check his messages. I’m aware of his eyes glancing my way at the red lights, but I try to ignore it. For his own sake, it’s better he doesn’t know. And if he did, he would definitely never speak to me again. Not for the rest of our lives.
When we arrive back at my house, Hudson turns to me one last time. His pale blue eyes look sad. “You can still talk to me if you need to, Addie,” he says.
I bite back a comment about how his girlfriend probably wouldn’t like that. “Okay.”