Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“Seriously, thank you.”
“It’s no problem,” he says, his voice filled with sincerity. “C’mon, I’ll drive you home.”
When I get home and step through the front door, I find my mom is waiting for me. She cuts across the room and envelops me in a hug. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” she begs.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her as she holds me tight. “I won’t. I promise. I shouldn’t have left. It was wrong, and I know that.”
“It seems we’ve grown apart the last several months,” she says, sitting at the kitchen table. “I think it’s time for you to talk and me to listen.”
We spend the next hour talking about everything, from how I’m doing in school, to Richie and me breaking up, to my friendship with Melissa. For the first time in a long time, she listens without judgement, and it feels really good to be able to talk to my mom. I’ve missed this, and I tell her that.
We also talk about dad and she confides in me that he’s continuing to spiral downward and she’s at a loss as to how to help him, so she’s asked him to see a marriage counselor with her.
She ends up giving me my privileges, my car, and my phone back with the promise that she’ll be watching my grades and has the right to randomly drug test me. She also suggests I don’t hang out with Melissa anymore, saying that she’s worried Melissa will bring me down. I ask her to please trust me and she drops it.
With a hug good night, I go to bed feeling a lot better. Mom and I should’ve had this talk a long time ago, but I’m glad we had it now. In a lot of ways, I feel like our talk happened because of Landon. Our conversation tonight helped calm me down and then he made me call my mom to let her know where I was. I consider texting him to thank him, but question if it’s a good idea. Up until today we’ve barely even spoken ten words to each other.
As I’m lying down in bed, a message on my social media comes through from Landon. Not sure if you have your phone back, but just wanted to make sure you’re okay.
I respond with: We talked and everything is okay. Thank you for listening to me tonight. See you at school tomorrow.
A few minutes later, Landon responds with: Good night.
Two
Harper
I’m grabbing my books from my locker when Melissa walks over and leans against the locker next to mine. “Saw your car in the parking lot… Your mom gave it back after you ran away?”
“Yep, we talked.” I close my locker. “How did you know I ran away?” I already know she didn’t answer when my mom called her, which means there’s only one way she could’ve found out…
Melissa flinches, but quickly schools her features. “Richie and I were hanging out last night. He was upset about you breaking up with him. Your mom called him worried.”
“Did you sleep with him?” I ask her point-blank.
She scoffs. “No! I don’t need or want your sloppy seconds.”
“You know I haven’t slept with him.”
“Whatever. You know what I mean.” She rolls her eyes.
The bell rings for first period and everyone disperses, not wanting to be late. “I guess I’ll see you at lunch,” I tell her before I walk away.
On my way to class I think about why I asked her if she and Richie slept together. At first, I consider that maybe I do still care about him and if they did, it would hurt me, but when I imagine them hooking up, I don’t feel sick or sad or even angry. I feel relieved.
And that leads me to wonder if maybe deep down I was hoping her answer would be yes, because then it would make it easy to cut her loose. To end what I’m realizing is a one-sided friendship. Because as much as I try to care about Melissa, I’m beginning to wonder if she’s capable of caring about anyone else. She could’ve come over to my house last night after she heard Richie and I broke up. She’s snuck in through my window a million times, but she didn’t. She went to him. And with that thought, I think I have my answer.
As I walk to class, I find myself looking around to see if Landon is somewhere in the halls. I’m not even sure if I’d approach him if I did see him, not knowing what to say. It was easy last night, while we were alone at the park, to talk and connect, to share our stories—I shared more with him in those few hours than I have in the last six years with Melissa and seven months with Richie. In the dark of night, I felt safe. But now that the sun is up, I wonder if I would still feel that way. In the light of day, would our connection still feel as strong as it did last night? I know one thing for sure, I would like to find out. I’m just not sure if Landon feels the same way.