It was dark by the time Graham pulled into Whistler. His GPS directed him to the Grandview Hotel, and when he pulled into their circular drive, the valet came to his door to greet him. Graham rolled down his window and spoke. “I’m here to pick up a friend.” The passenger-side door opened before the valet could acknowledge Graham. He smiled at the man. “And now she’s in my car. Thank you.” He rolled up his window and turned his head toward Rennie. “Hey.”
“Just drive, okay?” She pushed her suitcase over her shoulder and onto the back seat before reaching for her seat belt.
“Okay.” He did as she asked, driving out of Whistler and leaving the ski resort behind them. Rennie sat there with her head leaning against the window and with her eyes closed. Every so often, she would whimper, and he would place his hand on her arm or squeeze her hand. She never shied away or woke up.
When he pulled into a gas station to fill up, Rennie startled awake. She looked around, almost as if she were dazed and wondering how she got from the hotel to Graham’s car. Her hair was a mess, her eyes were red and puffy, and he could tell she had been crying. He squeezed her hand once more before he got up to pump the gas. She followed shortly after, telling him she was going to look for a bathroom. He kept his gaze on her as she entered the store, watched as she asked the clerk a question, and followed her until she disappeared. Once the tank was full, he replaced the nozzle, waited for his receipt, and went into the store. Rennie was still in the bathroom. He thought about knocking but wanted to give her the time she needed to cope with whatever she was going through. When she came out of the restroom, she found him in an aisle.
“Are you hungry?”
She shook her head.
“You should eat something, Ren.”
She reached for a doughnut and then put it back. She glanced up at Graham with tears in her eyes, and he nodded. “Okay. Let’s go home.” He wished Brooklyn were with them, because he wanted to go hunt Theo down and ask him what the hell happened to Rennie. Whatever he had done, it was bad, because he had never seen his friend like this.
He opened the passenger-side door for her and waited until she was in before closing it. He then opened the door to the back seat and rummaged through the bag of goodies he had bought earlier and placed them on the console. Graham closed the door and went around to the other side. He leaned in, opened the pop, the candy, and a bag of chips and set it out for Rennie. “When you’re hungry,” he told her and then did the same for himself.
Traffic was light heading toward the border. At times, Graham found himself counting the oncoming cars to keep his mind occupied. He talked to Rennie, which was more like talking to himself, because she wasn’t answering him. She also wasn’t providing any sort of commentary to keep the conversation flowing.
“Do you remember our sophomore year when we had that really minor earthquake? I don’t think it even registered on the Richter scale.” He laughed. “You were on campus, hanging out, and we were getting ready to go to some frat party or something. Was it the toga party?” He looked at Rennie for confirmation, but she was gazing out the window. He continued, “Or maybe that party was later. Anyway, so you and I are walking, and we’re goofing around. We had pregamed, and we’re feeling a bit tipsy, but then I started leaning toward the right, and you the left. People were falling, and a few people were screaming, which I didn’t get. I had no clue what was going on, and you were on the ground, laughing.
“When someone hollered out we had an earthquake, I was like ‘That was it?’ because I barely felt anything, and I remember when I told my mom I wanted to go to California for school, she freaked because of all the earthquakes, and I had to remind her they were more south. Of course, you called your mom and told her all about it; she called the Hewetts, and Brooklyn’s mom told my mom, who thought the ocean had swallowed the campus. She told me to come home right away because San Jose was dangerous.”
He glanced at Rennie again, but she hadn’t moved. Graham’s head was on a partial swivel, going from watching his friend to the road and back again. He thought about pulling over or finding a hotel, any place where he could hold her until she was ready to tell him what happened back in Whistler. As he drove, signs for the border came into view, and he pressed the gas pedal a smidge more to increase his speed.
“I’m going to need your passport,” he told her.
Rennie rummaged through her purse, pulled out her passport, and handed it to Graham without a word. She continued to stare out the window with the angriest look he had ever seen on her face. For as long as he’d known her, she’d always been the type to brush her emotions under the rug, and if someone upset her, she sought revenge, which was why she made a damn fine lawyer.
Graham inched his car forward, waiting his turn at the border. For some reason, he was nervous, afraid they weren’t going to be allowed back into the United States. He knew it was silly to think such a thing, but the thought tickled the back of his mind. When the signal light turned green, he slowly let off the gas and pulled up to the border agent.
“Passports or enhanced IDs,” the man said gruffly. Graham handed them over. “Where do you live?”
“I live in Cape Harbor, and she lives in Seattle.”
The agent bent forward to look farther into the car. “Roll down your back windows.” Graham did as he was told. “How long were you in Canada?”
“Only a few hours.”
“What was your business there? Anything to declare?”
“I went and picked up my friend, and no.”
The agent waited for Rennie to say something.
Without looking at the agent, Rennie said, “I drove with a friend to the ski lodge in Whistler. I couldn’t stay, so Graham picked me up.”
Graham grew irritated with Rennie. She had to know she looked suspicious when she didn’t make eye contact with the guard. Graham waited, his fingers gripping the steering wheel while the agent typed on his computer. The temptation was there to ask what the screen read, in the hope of making light of the fact his passenger acted fishy and slightly rude.
After what seemed like an hour, the border agent handed Graham his ID and Rennie’s passport back and told them to have a nice night. As soon as he was away from the station, he floored it. They technically had an hour until they were home, but forty-five minutes or less if Graham had anything to say about it.
He thought about bringing up some old memories, like the time they went to prom their junior year and Rennie was so nervous she stabbed him with the pin for his boutonniere. She jabbed the needle so hard into his tuxedo jacket it went right through and poked him in the chest. His mom had to work to get the tiny bit of blood out of the white shirt, and Rennie felt so bad that she told Graham he could stab her back so they’d be even. He never took her up on her offer but would have liked to right about now.
They pulled into the marina parking lot. Graham parked and shut his car off. The only sound around them was the strong wind coming off the ocean and waves crashing against the rocks. Overhead, a lamp softly illuminated the space inside the car. He took off his seat belt and angled his body toward Rennie, only to find her asleep. He sighed, got out of the car, and made his way to the passenger side. He opened the door slowly and made sure he caught her before she fell out. Graham reached in and pushed the red button on her seat belt, untangled her, and somehow found a way to scoop her up into his arms. She whimpered.