I blink as I step into my apartment and then I blink again. It's a complete mess – there's half-eaten food on the counter, dirty dishes piled up in the sink, and clothes scattered all over the living room. Clearly, Beckett has made no effort to clean up during the two weeks I've been gone.

And yes, two weeks. I spent all of it at Ellis's house, hidden away in the guest bedroom, borrowing all of her things. Beckett has called me every single day, and I've ignored every single one of his attempts to reach me. My voicemail inbox is now overflowing with around 83 unheard messages from him.

"Oh my god," Delaney says through a laugh as her eyes sweep around my apartment. "Does he not clean up after himself?"

"I usually pick up when I get home from work," I explain, my brows pitched together as set my keys down on the cluttered counter, "but I guess I never realized how much there was."

"What about when you didn't live together?" Ellis asks, stepping over a laundry basket in the middle of the hallway. Then, pivoting to look at me with wide eyes, she pleads, "Oh, no. Juniper, don't tell me you used to clean his apartment for him."

I sigh. "Well, it was just so messy, and I was always over. I just— I don't know. I just couldn't help myself."

I confess that I've always liked order and cleanliness. I've always had a strong tendency toward following rules and maintaining structure. I thrive on it. And when things go undone, I have this habit of stepping in to make them right, almost like my body can't tolerate leaving things in disarray.

So yes, I did vacuum his apartment randomly, I sometimes did his dishes, and I may have done a load or two of his laundry for him.

"Oh, Juniper," Ellis frowns.

"Is that bad?" I ask, feeling a blush creep up my cheeks, and scrunching my nose slightly.

"Yes," they both reply in unison. I sigh and bite my lip.

I make my way to our bedroom and push the door open, revealing yet another messy space. The sheets and comforter are unmade on the bed, clothes are strewn all over, and glass cups and cereal bowls have formed a little mountain on Beckett's side of the room.

"My god, he's a pig," Delaney laughs out.

I suck in a breath through my lips, gathering myself before walking over to the closet. I retrieve two suitcases, one of them belonging to Beckett. Yes, I'm taking his. It's very unlike me, I know, but he's the one who cheated, so he can go buy a new one because I need it.

"Okay," I say, aligning the suitcases side by side on the bed and unzipping them.

"Okay," I bite my lip, my eyes darting around the increasingly messy bedroom, which is steadily making me more stressed out by the second.

"Okay, just start packing anything that looks important," I instruct Ellis and Delaney.

They both nod, Delaney heading towards the pile of dishes on the nightstand and Ellis toward my closet, while I head to my dresser to gather my belongings.

"Are you sure Beckett won't come home?" Delaney asks, a hint of worry in her voice as she digs through my nightstand, throwing my charger into the suitcase.

"No," I shake my head. "He shouldn't be home for another few hours. We should be good."

It's only 1 p.m., and he typically works late on Tuesdays — or at least, I thought he was working late. But now, I'm not so sure about his work schedule at all or what he does when he gets off.

Sliding open my dresser, I pull out clothes to wear on the road. I strip out of my current outfit, finally getting to wear something that's mine. A welcome change since leaving Beckett two weeks ago. No offense to Ellis's clothes, which lean towards neutrals like creams, whites, and browns—perfect for her Instagram aesthetic. But I love my colors and patterns.

I opt for my matching orange shorts with a button-up top to go with them, adding a cropped tank underneath because, for early June in Seattle, it's already hot outside.

"Junie," Delaney calls out as I'm pulling my shorts up. "Is this considered important?"

I turn to look at her, her lips pressed together in a thin line, holding back a smile. She's gingerly holding my vibrator between her thumb and forefinger as if avoiding direct contact.

I can feel the heat creeping up to the tips of my ears as I stammer, "Oh my — Delaney, put that down!"

"Was Beckett that bad in bed that you needed a vibrator?" Delaney teases, prompting Ellis to bark out a laugh.

He definitely wasn't amazing. He had a tendency to rush things, going too fast and too aggressively, constantly changing positions, and then always finished too soon.

"Well, it's important now," Ellis says around a laugh as Delaney tosses the vibrator into the suitcase.

I press my finger to my temple, shaking my head before turning to rummage through my closet. I grab items I can't imagine living without and add them to the suitcase. I have at least up until summer ends to come back and actually pack up my things.

"You know, maybe this is all for the best," Ellis suggests, holding one of my shirts against her front before tossing it onto the bed.  "Now you can take your time to actually write that book you've always wanted to, without Beckett getting in the way."

I blow a breath between my lips. "I don't know. It wasn't just him. I just never really got around to starting it."

"I don't know, June," Delaney says, tossing my toiletries into the suitcase. "Remember how he didn't want you to take the job at the Times? Didn't he say something like 'newspapers are dead'?"

"Yeah," I reply, gathering another pile of clothes and setting them in the suitcase. "He did say that."

What he actually said was, "I don't know why you'd waste your time writing for something as stupid as the Seattle Sun Times. Newspapers are dead, Juniper. Haven't you heard?"

I took the job anyway because, well, it was the Seattle Sun Times, the longest-running newspaper in Seattle. Plus, it was better than being an email copywriter at my last job, and I did, after all, have a degree in journalism.

"Well, now you don't have to worry about him. You have all summer to start writing. No distraction," Ellis says, smiling at me.

I open the bottom drawer of my dresser and begin gathering the rest of my shirts when suddenly, the front door creaks open. I glance up at Ellis and Delaney, and we all pause, exchanging a quick, worried look. The door shuts with a quiet thud, followed by footsteps.

"Shit, is that Beck?" Ellis whispers.

His keys clatter onto the kitchen counter as I watch Delaney's eyes wide. I nod in response to Ellis's question, my own voice hushed as I urge, "Hurry!"

I start tossing things aimlessly into the suitcases, trying to move as quickly and quietly as possible. But in my haste, I step over the dresser drawer I had opened and slam my shin into it.

"Ouch," I mutter through clenched teeth, gripping my shin tightly with both hands.

"June, is that you?" I hear Beckett's voice from the living room.

In a panic, I dash toward my closet, grabbing an armful of clothes and tossing them into the suitcase while Ellis and Delaney quickly zip it up. I whirl around, frantically gathering more of my belongings, shoving them into another bag.

"Juniper?" Beckett's voice grows closer.

And just as Delaney and Ellis finish zipping up the two suitcases, the door to the bedroom swings open.

"What the..." Beckett's voice trails off as he shifts his gaze from Delaney to Ellis, and then finally settling his eyes on mine. He's dressed as he always is when he comes home from the office: grey slacks snug in the back and the front, a white fitted dress shirt straining against his biceps, and that loosened tie around his neck that he always undoes on his drive home.

He looks good. He's always looked good.

He takes a step towards me. "Juniper."

"Hurry," Delaney blurts out, stepping toward him as she attempts to push him back. But Beckett's imposing 6'4" muscular frame doesn't budge easily.

"Really, Delaney?" Beckett retorts, shaking his head listlessly, his hands held up to the sides.

Ellis and I manage to squeeze past him and through the doorway, as we quickly navigate the short hallway toward the front door. Along the way snatching up random essentials – my computer charger, the book I was reading but never got around to finishing, notes from my articles – all while Beckett trails behind me.

"Juniper," he insists, sidestepping so he's standing directly in front of me, blocking my path out the door. He leans down to my eye level, attempting to lock eyes with me. "Will you please just talk to me?"

"No," I assert firmly, trying my best to avoid direct eye contact. Which is a challenge considering how he's gripping the sides of my arms now. "There's nothing to talk about, Beckett."

"June, look, I'm sorry–" Beckett starts to say.

"Beckett, she said no," Delaney interjects as Ellis swings the front door open.

"I'm not talking to you, Delaney," he says through clenched teeth.

He redirects his focus to me, his voice softening as his hand gently rubs up and down my arms. "Baby, will you please just let me explain?"

I squeeze my eyes shut. "I have nothing to say to you, Beckett. And there is nothing you can possibly say that would make any of this better."

"June, I didn't even enjoy it, okay? I was thinking about you the whole time. I felt terrible."

I pause, opening my eyes to lock onto his blue ones, letting out a single laugh. "Oh my god, wow. Thank you. That really just makes me feel so much better about you cheating on me."

Pulling my arms away from his grip, I sidestep him and head towards the door held open by Ellis.

"God, you're so gross, Beckett," Delaney mutters, brushing past him as we hurry out the door and descend the stairs to her car.

"It's not like it meant anything!" Beckett shouts after us. "She didn't mean anything to me!"

We reach Ellis's grey Audi Q5 and quickly toss my bags into the back of the car before I settle into the back seat. Delaney stands on the door frame of the SUV, her arm resting on the roof.

"Hey, Beckett," she calls up to him, a wry smile tugging on her lips. He's standing on the second floor of the apartments by the railing, watching us. "I bet you wish you played football as well as you play girls!"

Beckett's body tightens, his jaw clenching, fists balling up at his sides. Then, he sharply turns around and stomps back into the apartment.

"Delaney," Ellis scolds, her jaw dropping slightly with a smirk threatening to tug at her lips.

Delaney plops into the passenger seat and shrugs. "What? It's true."

Ellis snorts out a laugh as she starts the car, shifting it into drive and pulling out of the apartment complex. Delaney cranks up the music, setting the tone for our three-hour road trip to the lake.

The scenery outside quickly transitions from lush evergreen trees to the towering Cascade Mountains and then, eventually, to the high desert landscape – rolling hills, sagebrush, and pine forests.

With only nine stops, approximately two hundred pictures, and twenty takes of videos for Ellis to document our journey for her 900k followers on Instagram, we find ourselves approximately thirty minutes away from the lake.

"Oh, you know what we should do?" Delaney says, popping a cherry into her mouth from when Ellis made us stop at the fruit slash antique market on the drive over. "We should go to the rodeo. I wouldn't mind finding myself a cowboy."

I catch Ellis's gaze in the rearview mirror as I spoon another small scoop of huckleberry ice cream from the market into my mouth, biting down on the tip of the spoon as I meet her eyes.

She keeps doing that—glancing at me like she's afraid I might break down at any moment. I stab the spoon into my ice cream and set it aside.

"It's been years since we've been to one," Delaney continues. "Do you remember that one year when that guy let you ride his horse? And it went galloping off with you?"

Ellis huffs out a laugh, turning her attention back to the road. "Yeah, the horse ran so far away they couldn't find me for like 20 minutes, and I had no idea how to stop the thing."

"You hooked up with him all summer, didn't you?" Delaney asks.

Ellis laughs. "No, I just made out with him."

Delaney furrows her brow in thought. "What was his name again? Ben? Billy?"

I see Ellis's hazel eyes glance at me through the rearview mirror once more, her eyebrows pulled together. Her voice softens as she asks, "You okay, Junie?"

"Mm-hmm," I reply, forcing out a smile. I'm not lying though. It's odd, but even despite everything that happened with Beckett earlier, I strangely feel fine. Calm even.

I gaze outside at the lake, now visible along the highway we're driving on, I can sense both of them glancing at me, clearly skeptical of my calm demeanor. I don't blame them, though.

"I think his name was Blaze," Ellis says, breaking the silence and answering Delaney's earlier question.

"Oh, that's right. Blaze," Delaney echoes.

"You know what I think?" Ellis shifts in her seat, sitting up straighter in the driver's seat. She has that look in her eyes like she's scheming something. "I think we should make a pact."

"What kind of pact?" I ask.

"A 'no boys' summer pact," she declares. Delaney snorts out a laugh, pretending to choke on a cherry. Ellis just rolls her eyes and continues, "I mean, think about it. This is the first time in four years that we're all single at the same time."

Delaney takes a moment to think. "No...What about two summers ago?"

"Juniper had just started dating Beckett," Ellis reminds her, her voice quieter, and she glances at me through the rearview mirror again.

"Oh right," Delaney whispers.

Ellis turns to Delaney, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Who knows what next year is going to look like. You," she says, gesturing at Delaney, "are probably going to end up with that math teacher guy you've been pining over all school year. June is going to be a famous book author and will have to move to LA or New York." I roll my eyes at her exaggeration. "And I will probably be married to a billionaire with a private jet and a body so ripped I'll never want to leave bed."

Delaney laughs. "Oh god, you wish."

"No, you wish. You've been in love with Bill Nye the science teacher for the last 6 months." Ellis retorts and Delaney rolls her eyes.

"His name is Clayton," Delaney adds, her voice softening. "And he's the math teacher, not Bill Nye the Science Guy."

"Whatever. Same this. He's a nerd," Ellis says, leaning forward against the steering wheel, a wide smile spreading on her face. "So, what do you say?"

"I'm in," Delaney says with a smile, glancing at me and Ellis through the rearview mirror, waiting for my response.

I raise my hand in a half-hearted gesture. "It's not like I'm going to be dating anyone anytime soon anyways," I say, and both of them respond with warm smiles.

"Okay, so it's settled – no boys this summer under any circumstance," Ellis declares.

"Unless it's for free drinks or dancing, of course," Delaney adds quickly, earning a laugh from all of us.

"Of course," Ellis says with a half-shrug as she maneuvers the Audi into a parking spot in front of a coffee shop on Main Street at the lake.

Delaney and I both let out groans at the same time.

"No! God, Ellis, we're literally 5 minutes away from the house!" Delaney protests.

"Yeah, do we really need to make another stop?" I add.

Ellis scoffs in feigned outrage, her jaw dropping. "I need a coffee!"

Notes

What are your thoughts on Juniper's character thus far?
Do you find her too much of a pushover?

Juniper and I share quite a few similarities, but I'm going to keep you wondering about what those are lol!

Also, stay tuned for Wells' POV, which will be coming in a few chapters from this one.

Thank you everyone for reading, commenting, and voting! ❤️