❝Urban calloused feet

Walking barefoot on the beach

Worn smooth by the sand❞

-Richard L. Ratliff

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"Lyndsey? Hey... I understand if you don't want to talk to me, but--"

"Aria! Hey, why wouldn't I want to talk to you?"

"I just--I thought you were angry with me. You know..."

"Girl, I will always be here for you regardless of whatever crap you do. Especially if you do crap and need some help getting out of it."

"Thanks."

"You should really just listen to me once in a while. So what's up?"

"I thought you should know. Kale broke up with me."

"Wait--wait--wait--hold the phone. He broke up with you?"

"Yeah... Lynn, I thought you--"

"As in, he did it, not you?"

"He told me that he didn't think he was good for me. Said he was being selfish, demanding too much from me. Getting in the way of my dreams or whatever."

"I probably shouldn't go to the Grouplove concert next week since my ears clearly aren't working properly. There's no way I heard that right."

"You did."

"Kale Bosworth said this. Are you serious?"

"Yep."

"I can't believe it... and all this happened after he talked to your fruit seller guy?"

"Yeah, he told me Tinkerbell said something that forced him to rethink his relationship priorities. Or something like that."

"Whoa, Tinkerbell's spouting wisdom now? I had no idea he was capable of forcing our all-knowing Kale into questioning his own flawless methods."

"I agree; it doesn't sound anything like him. I'd ask Kale more about it, but it'd be sorta awkward to bring it all up again at this point."

"So maybe you should just... call Tinkerbell and find out from him."

"I guess?"

"What are you waiting for? CALL TINKERBELL. And Aria, you'd better listen to me this time."

"Okay."

"..."

"..."

"Why are you still on the line?!"

"Lynn... what if... I'm nervous..."

"Okay, just for five minutes, I'm going to be a terrible friend and hang up on you so you have to go call your man. And I won't pick up until after you've talked to him, so don't try calling me back, sucka. You've got twenty minutes to make your move before I come over to your house and force you using whatever means necessary."

"LYNN--"

"..."

◽︎◾︎◽︎

a/n: important note here. we officially have ten chapters left including an afterword; i'm going to make the end tally up to fifty parts, which is a good number for this kind of book. i can't promise i'll be finished by the 12th, but it will be as soon as possible, i swear. hang in there fam, the end is near :)