Chasing the Sun Read online

  10

  Neb

  “I wish the sun would have blocked that moon,” Kit says.

  “I’d risk permanent blindness to get that image out of my head.” Looking directly at a solar eclipse can cause irreparable damage to the eyes, and that’s all anyone has talked about as the date of the eclipse got closer. Mom ordered a box of flimsy glasses “Guaranteed to Protect Your Eyes During the Eclipse” since she knows there’s no way I won’t stare at it for as long as I can, even if it could risk my eyesight.

  My thumb skims my moon pendant through my shirt and a sense of calm grounds me.

  Theo waves through the back window, but I’m looking past him at the girl in the passenger seat. Her hair is the same color as mine, but I can’t make out any other details. Kit refused to get close enough to let me see her face, and the anticipation is making me crazy. I sent the text about Theo’s ass before realizing how superficial it made me sound, and now that anxiety is piling on top of the rest. What if she does have a hairy ass? Does that matter? I mean, people have hair and they can’t control where it sprouts.

  My phone dings, and I exhale.

  Sage: yeah, sorry. I forgot to shave before we left

  I burst out laughing and Kit rolls his eyes. I made the mistake of telling him that Sage and I have been texting, and now he snickers every time my phone buzzes.

  Not that I’m gonna let that stop me.

  Me: that reminds me of a joke

  Sage: oh no

  Me: how does the moon cut its hair?

  Sage: I’m sure this will be awful

  Me: eclipse it

  Sage: Dead. I am dead

  Me: I can’t wait to meet you

  I don’t hit send on that last one. By now she has to know and I don’t want her to think I’m a creeper, even though I’ve felt drawn to her right from the start. When I told Kit we were texting, he kind of shrugged it off and I got the feeling that her quick wit and sarcasm were too much for him. But she’s the first girl I’ve met in forever who gets my jokes and can hold an entire conversation in memes—something we’ve done more than a few times.

  And she’s the first person who’s made me laugh since Dad died.

  My phone dings again, but my smile falls and dread grips my gut.

  “Trouble in paradise?” Kit asks.

  “Not exactly.”

  Tara: whatcha up to?

  I debate not answering. She’s the last person I want in my head right now. I never told her I was going on this trip and I’m tempted not to answer, but ignoring her only makes her more persistent, like a feral cat batting a mouse until it finally moves in for the kill.

  Me: hanging with Kit

  It’s not untrue. She doesn’t need to know where I’m going.

  Tara: that sounds fun

  Is she looking for an invitation? That’s not happening.

  Me: yeah

  Tara: we should hang out before school starts

  Me: I’m gonna be pretty busy

  It might be overly optimistic to assume Sage and I will be hanging out, but that’s all I can think about. Tara needs to dissipate like the gasses I was named after.

  “So…” I say, and Kit glances at me.

  “What’s up?”

  Kit isn’t exactly a beacon of advice, but I don’t know who else to talk to about this. “How well do you know Tara?”

  “The one who drives by your house all the time and was climbing all over you at my bonfire?”

  I groan. “Yes.”

  “I dunno. She’s popular. Seems nice enough. And is into you.” He waggles his brow, like that’s supposed to imply something.

  “Any ideas on how to make her go away?”

  His brows keep waggling. “Like, away-away?”

  I snort. “No. Like quit-stalking-me away.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  “Seriously.”

  “I am. She’s one of those girls who always has a boyfriend. None of them seem to mind until they break up.”

  My head hits the window with a thump. A year ago, I never could have imagined how much my life has changed. Jennie and I had just slept together for the first time, Dad and I were planning a version of the trip I’m on now, and I was already being wooed by colleges with top-notch astrophysicist programs. Now I’m living with a mother who thought she was done with the year-round caregiving phase of her life, about to start my senior year at a school where the only person I know is the kid I befriended when I was ten, and apparently being hunted by a girl who doesn’t take no for an answer.

  “So you have no advice?”

  “It’s probably easier to let her have her way, then dump her.”

  My skin crawls at the thought of being with someone I don’t care about. Maybe that negates my bro-card or something, but I don’t hook up to hook up. “That’s not happening.”

  He laughs. “I don’t get you.”

  My pulse quickens and my blood feels like it’s on fire. It usually takes more than a cheap dig to piss me off, but I’m already on edge from leaving late. “If she’s so great, why don’t you go for her?”

  He shifts in his seat and flexes his fingers against the steering wheel. “Not my turn.”

  I cock my head. “Your turn?”

  “Until Tara decides she’s interested in someone, they don’t stand a chance.”

  “Well, maybe I need to reintroduce you.”

  “Nah, man. I’m good.”

  I roll my head from side to side, trying to relax the muscles in my neck, then don’t speak again until we pull into the campground.

  We crawl along the narrow road past campers and motorhomes that look like they’ve been here all summer, and slow even more at a stretch of empty campsites.

  “Now what?” Kit asks.

  I lean my head out the window. Two adults who I assume are the teachers hurry from car to car, pointing in one of two directions of the large open space.

  “It looks like they’re directing traffic up there.”

  “The tall bald dude is Mr. Mauro,” Kit says. “He’s cool. Ms. Kim can be a hardass.”

  As soon as he says it, a petite woman with straight black hair and bangs that cover her eyebrows leans against Kit’s open window. “Hi, boys.” She looks at me and smiles. “I’m Ms. Kim. We’re setting up by bathroom rules.”

  “Bathroom rules?” Kit asks.

  “Whichever bathroom you use is where your tent goes. Boys on this side, girls over there. Mr. Mauro and I will be stationed in the middle.” She looks us both in the eye until we nod.

  Kit raises a hand. “Boys here.” She runs to the next car and he smirks. “Two teachers is easy to sneak past.”

  Heat warms my cheeks and I’m glad I skipped shaving so he can’t tell.

  “Question is, whose tent are you thinking? Your text buddy or the sex buddy?”

  I push out of the car, swallowing my irritation. He gets out and watches me over the roof of the car.

  “I’m not trying to be a dick. I’m just saying. Tara’s a sure thing. Sage…” he holds out his hands like he’s balancing them. “She’s got baggage.”

  “And the girl who sleeps with everyone doesn’t have baggage,” I murmur low enough that he can’t hear me, walking away from the car, away from Kit. I don’t stop until I reach the tree line at the edge of the campsite. A trail winds through the trees to a creek that looks like it runs along this side of the campground. I’m tempted to follow it now, but another desire stops me. These past couple weeks have felt like an eternity once I realized I liked Sage, and now that we’re finally in the same place, I’m hiding in the woods. But I don’t want to meet her when I’m mad.

  “Neb, come back!” Kit shouts, but I ignore him. If we’re going to make it three days in the woods, I need to calm down.

  After several deep breaths, I lean against a tree and let the steady movement of the water calm me.

  Shouts and laughter ring through the trees as everyone unloads, and I start to feel gui
lty. It’s doubtful that Kit would start setting up the tent without me, but I don’t want to be a jerk. I pull out my phone to take a picture of the creek and it lights up with a new text.

  Sage: what do you call road-tripping to the eclipse?

  The shift in my mood is immediate. Kit and his obnoxiousness slide off my back and the sun peeks through the trees, brightening everything around me. Or maybe it just feels that way.

  Me: tell me

  Sage: going where the sun don’t shine

  That was one of Dad’s favorites. My heart doubles in size, pressing against my chest, and I can’t tell if it’s because I miss him or if she’s become that important to me—even though we’ve never met. What is it about her that makes nothing else matter?

  I send back a laughing emoji and abandon my tree to help Kit.

  Cars haphazardly line the edge of the road we drove in on and tents are in various stages of assembly. Kit’s talking to Theo near his car, which means she’s close. When I join them, Kit punches my arm.

  “You know I didn’t mean anything, right?”

  “What’d you do now?” Theo asks.

  “Nothing,” we both say, exchanging grins.

  Yeah, I can get through this.

  “Glad to hear it,” Theo says. “Because there’s someone I want you to meet.” He points to the girls’ side of the campground to a pair of girls holding a tent. The redhead seems to be in charge, pointing with one hand while tugging on the tent with the other, while the other girl, the one in a flannel and with hair the same color as mine, scans the other campsites like she’s looking for someone.

  For me.

  11

  Sage

  “Sage, are you even listening to me?” Naomi asks for the third time.

  The corner of my mouth lifts in a smile. “No.” He’s here somewhere, and I’ll be no use to Naomi or anyone else until I find him. A sort of desperation filled me when we pulled into the campground and it’s only grown stronger since Theo ran off to find them.

  She rolls her eyes and drops her end of the tent on the ground. “Let’s go.”

  I freeze.

  She laughs at the panic on my face. “Are you kidding me? You’ve been mooning over him forever and now you’re scared?”

  “Mooning. Ha.”

  “Omigod, Sage.” She huffs out a laugh and grabs my hand. “Come on.”

  She drags me a few feet then stops to scan the campsites. “Over there.” And just like that we’re weaving around deflated tents and coolers until I see Kit’s car. I yank her hand to stop.

  “What?” she asks, and I nod to where Kit and Theo are standing. And Neb. They don’t see us, and they’re laughing while Theo talks. “Me-ow,” she says.

  Because Theo did not undersell Neb. He’s taller than I imagined, and he’s got a sexy lumberjack thing going on, with the flannel and the scruff and what seem to be strong arms crossed over his chest. As if he can feel our stares, he looks up and my eyes lock with heaven. My stomach does a slow roll and I can’t stop the smile that spreads over my face. Then he glances down and types on his phone.

  My phone dings.

  Neb: hi

  Never in the history of the world have two letters caused such a reaction inside a person. It’s like one of the stars he’s always talking about exploded inside me, filling me with a warmth that reaches from my cheeks to my toes. With a very heavy pause below my belly.

  I write back.

  Me: hi

  And when he smiles back, my earlier anxiety disappears.

  “His smile really could end wars,” Naomi says.

  “Mm-hmm,” I say.

  “So are we gonna stare at him from over here or are you finally gonna collide with his asteroid?”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “I don’t know. Ride his jet stream? Come on.” She pulls me toward where they’re standing. This time I don’t resist, but as we approach, Tara bounces out of nowhere and grabs his arm.

  His smile hardens into tight lips and a clenched jaw, and if I knew him better I’d say he wasn’t happy to see her, but I’ve been familiar with his facial expressions for a whopping thirty seconds, so it’s hard to say for sure.

  “How does she already know him?” I ask, hoping the knife ripping through my chest isn’t obvious in my voice. I’ve been around Tara enough to know that if she wants something, nothing—and no one—is going to stop her until she gets it.

  “Theo mentioned she was at Kit’s bonfire but I didn’t think…” Naomi trails off as Tara clings to Neb’s arm. “I mean, you can’t blame her.”

  “Awesome.” I’m frozen in place, my hands fisting around the bottom of my T-shirt, my feet like cement blocks on the hard-packed dirt.

  Neb takes a step back, but Tara moves with him, batting her eyes and licking her lips in a way I could never pull off.

  “If it helps, he doesn’t seem interested. And you two have been talking for weeks. He’s excited to see you, not her.”

  That may be true, but fighting for Neb’s attention wasn’t part of the plan for this weekend.

  Neb does a head-tilt chin-jut thing at Kit, but Kit doesn’t notice. Then Neb’s eyes find mine. For a moment I don’t breathe, don’t blink, too afraid that if I do, everything I’ve built up in my head will come crashing down around me. Tara tugs at his sleeve but he rolls his shoulders and steps backward, effectively loosening her grip.

  “That’s a good sign,” Naomi says.

  But my throat goes dry. “I—I can’t do this.” The cement surrounding my feet loosens and I turn to flee. The sight of her rubbing all over him, with her tight shirt and short shorts and smile that promises a lot more than I can, burns in my mind and I will myself not to cry.

  “Sage.” Naomi’s using her Mom Voice.

  I pause.

  “She has nothing on you. If you’d turn around, you’d see that for yourself, but instead you’re going to be—"

  “Sage?” A deep voice behind me sends a shiver down my back.

  “—surprised,” Naomi finishes.

  A ripple of excitement bumps against my despair. I don’t know that voice, which can only mean one thing. I turn, and Neb is standing a few feet away. Theo and Kit are right behind him, and Tara is nowhere to be seen.

  Well, honestly, she could be ten feet away and I wouldn’t notice because Neb’s eyes, which are focused on me and me alone, have an intensity that makes everything beyond a three-foot radius disappear.

  This must be what it’s like to get sucked into a black hole.

  His smile quirks.

  Did I say that out loud?

  Naomi elbows me. They’re all waiting for me to speak.

  Theo clears his throat. “Aren’t you gonna say hi to your pen pal?”

  12

  Neb

  Is it possible for a star to explode inside your chest? Like you’re strolling along, minding your own business, then BAM—there’s a seismic shift in your universe. The sudden pressure coursing through me feels monumental. Like something flicked inside me and after months of despair I finally feel alive.

  Based on Sage’s smile, she’s feeling it too.

  “Hi, Neb,” she says. Her voice is smooth and soft and makes everything inside me relax. Until this moment there was a part of me that worried she was a guy. Some asshole that Kit enlisted to mess with me. But she looks as shell-shocked as I feel.

  And the rest of them have shit-eating grins as they watch our spectacle unfold.

  “I knew that wasn’t your ass in the window.”

  She bursts out laughing, and I decide that’s a sound I need to hear again.

  “You must be Naomi.” I nod at the redhead next to Sage.

  She smiles and holds out a hand. “Pleasure.”

  As I release her hand, a movement over her shoulder catches my eye.

  Shit.

  I whirl around to shoot daggers at Kit. This time he picks up on what I’m saying and notices Tara watching us. I move to his side a
nd keep my voice low. “I will give you whatever you want if you make Tara go away.”

  “On it.” He gives a one-fingered salute and hustles toward her. “I’ll be back when you’ve finished pitching our tents.”

  Naomi turns and sees Tara, but stops Sage before she can turn around. “Theo, you still need to help me.”

  His brows furrow. “With what?”

  “Getting the rest of the stuff out of the car.”

  “I thought we did.”

  She gives him a pointed look. A blush creeps up Sage’s cheeks, making her even prettier, and yet Theo still isn’t following. So much for that twin ESP thing you always hear about.

  “There’s still one thing I need help with,” Naomi says, slipping her arm through his and tugging him to her side.

  Sage gives her a shy smile, then Naomi leads Theo away from us and we’re finally alone.

  Blissfully, awkwardly alone.

  Sage traces the toe of her shoe in the dirt. “I was beginning to think you were a figment of my imagination.”

  There are so many ways I could respond to that, but I go with honesty. “Me, too.”

  She lifts her gaze, her face still down, so she looks up at me through her lashes.

  Do girls practice that or something?

  She smirks. “Are you saying you’ve been fantasizing about me?”

  Heat rushes over my chest and up my cheeks and to a few other places I’d rather she not realize she has an effect over. At least not yet. My mouth opens but words fail me. “I—I mean…”

  “I’m kidding!” She reaches for my arm, laughing. Her hand rests on my forearm and even through my flannel her touch does crazy things to my body. I fight the urge to pull her into my arms. Theo mentioned she recently got out of a not-so-great long-term relationship and hauling her over my shoulder like a caveman—as much as I want to—might scare her off.

  “Have you camped much?” I ask, desperate to keep her talking, to learn everything I can about her.

  “I’ve gone with my parents every summer, but this is my first time without them. What about you?”

  My words get caught in my throat. “My dad and I used to go every summer for at least a week…” I’m not sure how to finish. She doesn’t want to hear about my dead dad right now.