Read Online Phase (Phoebe Reede: The Untold Story #1) by Michelle Irwin - Free Book Online

didn’t tell me that it was okay if I didn’t want to go anymore. We’d already had that conversation the night before. She didn’t try to increase my guilt or tell me it was silly to feel that way.
    Instead, she just sat with me while I worked through my own emotions.
    “Oh, I think I spy something that might make the rest of the wait easier,” Mum said after a while.
    I looked up to see the statuesque figure of Angelique coming through the terminal. Even in a pair of yoga pants and slouched top, she looked fan-fucking-tastic.
    “Angel!” I squealed, not caring how many people turned and looked at me as I leapt to my feet and hurled across the terminal at her.
    It might have only been a couple of months since we’d seen each other, and we might have talked on the phone more nights than not, but it was still exciting to see her in person again. Especially considering seeing her meant we were that much closer to the moment we’d be on the plane out of the country.
    We crashed into each other in a tangle of limbs and held on tight as we twisted back and forth, squealing the whole time.
    After we released each other, she pinched the pink clump of hair behind my ear between her fingers.
    “Interesting dye job,” she said as she took in the bright stands. “Your roots are showing though.”
    “Fuck you too, bitch.” I yanked my head away from her hand. “Better than being a bottle blonde.”
    “Please,” she said with a roll of her emerald eyes, “this is totally my natural colour.”
    I snorted. “Sure. Maybe when you were six.”
    She laughed. “That’s beside the point, little punk.”
    “God, I missed you, you cow.”
    “You’re the one who’s been travelling all around the country, getting all hot and sweaty in the cabins of those cars, forced to spend so much time with all those boys in the pit . . . actually, what am I saying? Sign me up!”
    I chuckled. “Slut.”
    “Whore.” She kissed my cheek and slung her arm around my shoulder. I matched the pose. “It’s going to be great starting this trip with you,” she said as we walked back toward Mum.
    “Shh, don’t say that too loudly.”
    “I know, I know. According to your parents, we’re going to be joined at the hip the whole trip. Even if the reality is that you’re going to dump me like last night’s dinner the instant we land.”
    “Well, can you blame me? Fourteen hours stuck next to you with no escape.” It was too easy to fall back into my natural sarcasm with her. She understood me like no one else did. At school, we’d traded insults like no one’s business because it lessened the sting of any other barbs hurled our way. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t throw myself from the plane halfway across the ocean.”
    “If you decide to do that, let me know. Those doors can be hard to open, and I’d like to lend a hand. It’d be a shame to waste the opportunity after all.”
    “What are you girls talking about?” Mum asked.
    “Just plotting our itinerary, Mrs Reede,” Angel said in her sweeter-than-honey butter-wouldn’t-melt voice. I think my parents were among the few adults who saw straight through it, but that didn’t stop Angel from using it on them.
    Mum smiled indulgently and gave a nod before turning to me. “Did you want me to stick around still, sweetie?”
    I wanted to say yes just as desperately as I wanted to say no. I settled for a half-hearted shrug.
    “I’m sure she’d love you to, Mrs Reede,” Angel said. “But if we go through customs now, we can get a decent feed before getting on the plane.”
    “Okay. You girls have fun. And look out for one another, okay?”
    “Of course,” Angel said.
    I nodded as Mum wrapped her arms tightly around me. The stoic mask she’d worn all morning fell away as she whispered, “I’m going to miss you, so much.”
    Tears filled my own eyes again as I nodded against her shoulder. “Me too.”
    We must have hugged for half a minute or more before either of us