Learning how to transfer into the seat and adjust everything so I could break down my chair had taken a lot of practice, but now it was second nature. I popped off one wheel from my chair, then the other, before folding it up and stowing it away, over my shoulder and into the backseat. I pulled the front door closed and revved up the engine with the hand control, turning up Neck Deep on the stereo to obnoxious. I peeled out of the lot, nose toward home, grinning at the guy I’d cut off as I made my right turn. The population of Crest Haven had tripled since Memorial Day. Tourists. To him I was just a douche in a car. I loved it. The closer I got to home, the more I ignored the burning feeling in my gut that I was, in fact, wimping out. It was too late to turn around, and going there, well, what would it prove? I was tired—that was a fact, not an excuse. But if I was being honest with myself, it had more to do with self-preservation. Was it awful to admit I was relieved Liv would be gone for two months? That maybe the time apart would give our friendship a reboot. Liv had been Liv, always there in our group of friends, hanging out, catching air from a wave or joking in the halls at school with the rest of the guys. She was hot in a tough, take-no-shit kind of way and had a great smile, and when she 31
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