Free One Moment by Kristina McBride

anything like that.”
    “Who else is to blame?” My question strung out in the air between us like a thread, ready to break.
    Tanna and Shannon were silent in the darkness.
    “No one.” I tipped my forehead against my knees and tried to hold back my tears.
    “Maggie,” Tanna said, rubbing my back in slow circles. “You have to stop this.”
    I choked on a sob, then let it all the way out. Sitting there between them, clutching tight to the edge of my blanket, watching the clock tick me from the-first-Tuesday-without-Joey into the-first-Wednesday-without-Joey, I needed an escape.
    So I focused on the calming memories of what had been, scrolling through the years, the stages, the people we once were and had come to be.
    But somehow, that made everything feel worse.
    “I’m just really tired,” I said. “I don’t want to talk anymore.”
    “Are you sure?” Tanna asked, her hand slipping away from my back.
    “Yeah,” I said, the word shaking out into the darkness. “Please.”
    I lay back then, closed my eyes, and did the one thing that always helped me when I was feeling alone.
    I remembered my favorite night with Joey.
    The most important night of all.
    The night we became us .

    I’d always loved the sky. The night sky, though, was the best. The purplish-blue blanket that folded itself over my little town, it promised me things. Whispered to me when I was in that hazy state of almost sleep where anything seemed possible.
    Like Joey and me.
    Together.
    After so many years of my secret longing, it was fitting that it all started under the veiled and sparkling shelter only a night sky could offer.
    “Favorite midnight snack?” Joey lay next to me in the bed of his new black truck, which was actually used, his shoulder bumping mine as we played Twenty Questions in the middle of an abandoned back field on the outskirts of town.
    “Bozie’s Donuts.”
    Joey’s head tipped toward me, his hair falling across his forehead. “No way.”
    I smiled and bit my lower lip to keep myself from looking as excited as I felt to be so close to him. He smelled good. Like cut grass and honeysuckle. And I wanted to taste him.
    “I mean, seriously , no way.” As Joey shook his head, his eyes remained plastered to mine. “That’s too creepy.”
    “Last time I checked, there’s nothing creepy about Bozie’s Donuts.”
    Joey chuckled. “Wait’ll you see this.”
    He sat up and slid across the open tailgate of his truck, disappearing in the thick blackness that blanketed the night around us. I readjusted myself on the inflatable camping mattress Joey had unrolled in the truck’s bed and scooted closer to the center, listening to the sound of Joey’s footsteps as they mingled with the crooning chirp of the crickets. He got into the truck, and I heard rustling, then the soft sound of music before the slam of his driver’s side door rippled across the open field. He hopped into the truck’s bed, a white bag swinging in his hand.
    “Check it out.” He held the bag in the air.
    I laughed, surprised to see the Bozie’s Donuts logo. “That is a little creepy.”
    “I thought we’d get hungry while we waited.” Joey opened the bag and took a deep whiff.
    “You ever gonna tell me what we’re waiting for?” I raised myself on my elbows, feeling the shiver of my hair against my neck.
    “It’s a surprise.” Joey held the bag toward me. “You like devil’s food?”
    “Are you kidding?” I sat up and reached into the bag, feeling my way around some frosted donuts and a twisted pretzel donut before finally finding the perfect specimen. “They’re only the best.”
    “Creepy.”
    I laughed, wishing he would sit right next to me again. That he would lie down, turn to me, and flip this thing between us into full speed.
    After taking a few bites of the sweet donut, I looked at Joey. He tipped his head back, staring up at the sky as he wiped crumbs off his hands and swallowed his last bite.
    “You have to give me a