Lighting a Match in the Rain

Chapter Eighteen

I walked into Kinsley's house like I lived there. Neither of us had actually knocked on each other's doors for years. I kicked off my shoes, knowing how her mom was about her clean carpets, waved at her parents who were in the living room, and then raced down the hall and into her bedroom. Kinsley was lounging on her bed with her phone in her hand.

She didn't even glance up at me as I barged in. "Hey, girl."

"So, I got confronted by Reed Brewer today," I told her, throwing my purse on her vanity chair and then tossing myself on her bed at her feet.

She hummed, raising an eyebrow, though her eyes remained locked on her screen. "So, the usual."

I breathed, doing everything I could to try to remain calm. "He wanted to confront you and I had to stop him."

At this, she finally looked up at me. "Why?"

"Because of that stupid article you wrote!" I unleashed unable to hold back my anger. "You blamed him and Ricky for everything going on in town and now the feds are onto them."

A small smile tugged the edges of her lips. "The authorities know about my blog?"

"You are missing the point!" I said. "Reed threatened me! I need you to take it down! Delete it, unpublish it, do what you have to do in order to get it off the internet."

"Once something is on the internet, it's there forever."

"Kinsley," I warned. "Did you not just hear me?"

My best friend rolled her eyes and finally tossed her phone to the side, crossing her arms over her chest. "And what's he going to do if I don't?"

"I don't want to find out!" My phone dinged with an incoming text but I ignored it. "Please?" I begged her. "Just take it down."

She stared into my pleading eyes for a very long moment before finally groaning. "Fine. But you owe me. You owe me big time."

I sighed in relief and pulled my phone out of my pocket. It was from Reed. "Meet me at your dad's diner," was all it said.

"I know I do," I told Kinsley. "Just please delete it right now."

She looked frustrated, but nodded and pulled her laptop out from behind her bed and turned it on. As she did that, I replied to Reed. "Why?" I sent.

"I could use some coffee," he replied.

I sighed, knowing he had a better reason than coffee. I'd have to go to find out. "I guess I got to go," I told Kinsley, standing from the bed and shoving my phone in my pocket.

"You literally just got here," she deadpanned.

"And I got you to delete the post. And now I have somewhere else to be."

My phone dinged again, but I ignored it as I grabbed my purse. "Who's texting you?" she asked me.

"No one." Her brown eyes stared through my shield. I sighed. "Just Julian."

"Liar," she called me out. Was I that easy to read? I could have sworn I was a pretty good liar. "Who is it? The criminal?"

I scoffed. Why was she so judgmental when it came to Reed and Ricky? We all knew the rumors, but that was no reason to hate. "Shut up, Kinsley."

"Why are you even hanging out with him?" She stopped working on the laptop and had her full attention on me.

"We are copresidents. I don't have a choice."