Free Here Lies Bridget by Paige Harbison

me, but I wouldn’t tell her that.)
    “Listen,” Liam said, “I’m just saying that I don’t think you should do anything. I know you’re probably pissed about her being so well-liked already and stuff, but don’t take it out on her.” He sounded like a grown-up talking about high school drama. Maybe that should have told me something, but it didn’t.
    “I don’t understand why you’re so worried about it.”
    He hung his head, and answered into his hands. “Because she’s a nice girl, and I know you.”
    … are not was what he was saying.
    That wasn’t true.
    It
    wasn’t.
    “You don’t know me. Not anymore.” I felt the petty I’m-still-not-over-it words come out of my mouth, and any of the cool I did have left me.
    “Whatever, I know the social homicide you’re capable of committing. Just don’t do it.”
    I clenched my jaw. I hated when he talked to me like a child.
    “I won’t,” I said, and he finally looked me in the eyes.
    I smiled, and held up my hand like a Boy Scout. “Bitch’s honor.”

    6 9
    Some part of me hated that I had to play that role even with him.
    He looked at me for a moment, and I felt the chill in my chest soften my expression. Just for that moment, we were us.
    The old us, where I was just goofy and outrageous and he was indulgent. Where we were real with each other. Sometimes I missed that. Sometimes I wanted to just throw down the crown I wore at school and be his again.
    But that would be foolish. He wouldn’t take me back anyway.
    I was shaken from my reverie when he cleared his throat and asked, “All right, what do you need me to move?”
    “Cooler.”
    “What did you do, load it before putting it outside?”
    I nodded sheepishly. He shook his head with a smile, and muttered my name. “Ah, Bridget. Where is it?”
    “Garage.”
    He immediately turned and headed toward the garage. The garage with the side door I used to sneak him in through when we were younger. A moment later, he came through the kitchen with the cooler, the veins on his forearms raised.
    “Deck?”
    I nodded again and f litted to the sliding door to open it for him. I leaned on the doorframe and watched him put the cooler down. After setting it neatly against the fence of the deck, he walked toward me, stopping in front of me.
    “Anything
    else?”
    I felt a little winded as I hurried to try and think of something else I needed him to do.
    I couldn’t. “I don’t think so.” When he kept looking at me, I added, “But thanks.”
    “All right then, I guess I’ll see you later.”
    My heart skipped a clichéd beat.

    7 0
    P A I G E H A R B I S O N
    “Literally, later? Like, you’re coming to the party?”
    Wow, did that sound desperate. But I had to make sure. He rarely came to my parties, and it was often only when I asked him to personally.
    He gave a single laugh, “Yeah, literally.”
    “’K, then.” He was coming. He thought Anna was coming.
    Was that because he was bringing her? Or because he just assumed she’d heard about it like everyone else? I decided it had to be the latter. “Oh! Bring your bathing suit!”
    “Aw, no, Bridge, does that mean you’re going to be swimming? Are you going to do any ‘awesome new tricks’ you learned?” He laughed a real laugh, and I knew he was remembering the embarrassing episode I’d had at the pool when we were eleven. And the front-toothless school picture that had followed. It still hung in the front hall.
    I narrowed my eyes at him and smiled playfully. “At least I didn’t pee in the pool, Wee-um. ”
    “I was like five,” he said coolly, and opened the front door,
    “and I was trapped in the deep end.”
    “Ha.” I felt my uncreative response end the moment.
    Liam gave a short laugh and started down the front steps.
    “Okay, see you later,” he said again, then added, “literally.”
    He pulled on the key lanyard that hung from his front pocket and got into his black SUV.
    I watched him go and not look