The Secret 02 The Forever of Ella and Micha Read Free Page B

don’t smile very much.”
    I can’t stop smiling. “Well, thank you. It means a lot to me.”
    “Why don’t you go grab your stuff and we can meet back here in, like, an hour.” He backs down the sidewalk as I hike across the grass toward Lila.
    “Sounds good,” I call over my shoulder. “And thanks again.”
    By the time I reach Lila, she’s writing her phone number on Parker’s hand with a red pen.
    “We’re going on a road trip,” I announce, interrupting the conversation.
    Parker gives me a once-over and then dismisses me with his eyes. “So I’ll call you later then?” he asks Lila.
    “Yeah, sure.” She waves at him and he struts toward the main entrance of the campus, high-fiving another guy standing beneath the canopy in front of the doors.
    “Where and why are we going on a road trip?” Lila clicks the cap back on the pen and drops it into her bag.
    My stomach flips, thinking about how I’m going to see Micha in just hours. “To LA. Blake is giving us a ride. And before you say anything, he has a girlfriend.”
    “Sure he does,” Lila says cynically. “And he also really loves her and would never do anything to hurt her. Typical guy cop-out.”
    “What… Are you okay?” I’ve never heard her say anything like this before.
    “I’m fine,” she swears, shrugging it off. “Let’s go.”

    Blake’s a slow driver and when I ask him what he has under the hood, he has no idea. I try not to give him too much crap about it, but a few sarcastic remarks slip out.
    “Aw, you like cars.” He merges the car back into the slower traffic lane.
    From the backseat, Lila snort-laughs. “Likes them. The girl’s insane about them. It’s actually kind of annoying.” She shoots me a grin and I flip her the middle finger.
    “Is it just old cars?” He makes a careful turn down the off-ramp. “Or is it cars in general?”
    “Fast cars.” Like Micha’s poor Chevelle lying in pieces in his garage back home. May it rest in peace. “One’s that will kick ass in a race.”
    He cuts me a sideways glance. “Now I’m starting to get concerned about letting you borrow my car.”
    “I won’t race it.” I cross my heart with my finger. “I swear I’ll be easy on it.”
    He winks at me. “Don’t worry, I trust you.”
    The way he says it makes me uncomfortable and Lila gives me a knowing look in the rearview mirror.
    We keep quiet for most of the drive. Blake doesn’t have the air on and the black leather seats get hot and stick to the back of my legs. When we pull up to his girlfriend’s house, which is in the suburbs where every house and yard looks similar, I’m sweating.
    His girlfriend runs out of the house and throws her arms around him, nearly knocking him to the ground. She’s petite with red streaks in her hair and a piercing through her nose. She waves at us and then Blake backtracks to the trunk. Maneuvering over the console and into the driver’s seat, I pop the handle and he gets his suitcase out, before shutting it.
    He walks around to the driver’s-side window and waits for me to roll it down.
    “Be careful,” he reminds me in a serious tone and I nod.
    Flashing me a grin, he heads off to the house as Lila dives over the console and into the front seat.
    “Be careful,” she says in a low, mocking voice. “I’m trying to be so sexy.”
    “He didn’t sound like that.” I pull out onto the street.
    “You’re so blind.”
    “And sometimes you see too much.”
    I merge out onto the freeway and into the fast lane, but resist the urge to punch the pedal to the floor and get us there in half the time. Lila takes a nap with her head resting against the window and I bask in the peace of being on the road until we brink the edge of town, which glows against the night.
    I nudge Lila’s shoulder to wake her up. “We’re here.”
    She blinks her weary eyes and sits up in the seat. “What’s up? Where are we?”
    “We’re in LA. Or on the outskirts of it anyway,” I say as