Chapter Thirteen
Nina
Driving West to school this morning had proved enlightening. His family was one messed-up household. Not that my family with my lying, cheating, polygamist father was the standard for normal, but still. Why wouldn’t his dad seek a second opinion for his mom? Why would his mom pretend everything was okay? How sick was she? Was she dying? Good God, how did they even deal with something like that, if she was?
I was glad West had liked my audiobook idea. It made me feel like I was helping a little bit. And from what I’d seen, he needed someone to help him out every once in a while. The image of him sitting alone on the overgrown basketball court burning papers in the barbecue pit was something that would stick in my head forever, filed under Sad and Strange Male Behavior.
There was probably a whole lot of guy behavior I’d never understand, but maybe I could help West, if he’d let me. I could make a gift box containing graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate bars and set it out on one of the lawn chairs. That way, when he was out there engaging in his manly, brooding alone time, he’d have the world’s best snack. I had noticed that there were two lawn chairs, which made me wonder if anyone else ever sat out there with him. His dad mustn’t know what he was doing, which was probably the reason he had freaked out when Gidget and I interrupted him.
By lunchtime, I decided the s’mores plan might be a waste of good chocolate because I wasn’t sure if West would appreciate my actions or be annoyed by them. He seemed to run hot and cold.
Lisa and I sat at our normal table in the cafeteria. West didn’t join us today. Not that he needed to, because we weren’t dating.
“Who’s he sitting with?” Lisa asked.
I glanced over to where West sat. “I think those guys are fraternal twins, Matt and Charlie something?”
“Their family owns that landscaping business,” Lisa said. “What is it…Peterson…no…Patterson…that’s their last name.”
“Right. They’re both kind of cute. I could ask West if either of them are seeing anyone.”
“No thank you. I’m enjoying a drama-free life right now.”
“You sound like Jason.” Which gave me a funny idea. “Maybe that’s the universe’s plan,” I teased. “To fix you up with my brother.”
Lisa laughed. “I don’t think so. Your brother flees the room whenever I come over.”
“He does?” I hadn’t noticed.
Lisa nodded. “Ever since I walked in when he was peeing, he hasn’t been able to speak to me. I assured him I didn’t see anything, but I think it traumatized him.”
“Please, up until a few years ago, he used to pee outside on the bushes.”
“Ewwww.” Lisa wrinkled her nose. “That’s just wrong.”
“I’m pretty sure my dad taught him to do that. I think it’s a guy thing.” The memory made me equal parts sad and mad. When my dad was home he’d seemed happy, not like a guy who needed another family because we weren’t enough. “I’m going to end up in therapy one day because of him.”
“Hey,” Lisa broke her Twinkie in half and passed me a piece. “Childhood trauma is what makes you a stronger person. If everyone had the ideal life, my mom wouldn’t have a job.”
Lisa’s mom was a family counselor. When we’d first moved here, my mom had dragged my brother and me to counseling. I’d scoffed at the idea, but it had ended up being a good thing. One day, Lisa had been there waiting for a ride home. We’d talked and bonded over our love of books.
“Does your mom ever get tired of listening to other people’s problems?” I asked. It didn’t seem like a fun way to spend your day.
Lisa shrugged. “Your mom tries to hug everyone or feed them. My mom tries to talk them through their issues. Same thing, different delivery method.”
…
When I went to meet West at my Jeep after school, he wasn’t there. Since he liked to be everywhere early, I figured he must have stayed after class to talk to someone. No big deal. It was a sunny fifty degrees, and being outside after being trapped in classrooms all day felt good. I leaned against my bumper, pulled out my phone, clicked on the Kindle app, and lost myself in a story about shape-shifting dragons.
People shuffled past me, and cars pulled out of the lot. Haze from the gravel dust drifted through the air and landed on my screen. I wiped my phone with my shirt. A thread poked out from the end of my sleeve. I wrapped it around my index finger twice and then tugged, breaking it off.
“Why did you do that?” West asked.
I glanced up. He approached with a frown on his face.
“Why did I do what?”
“Pull out the thread on your sleeve.” He grabbed my hand and turned it palm up, pointing at the shirt cuff, which looked off kilter. “You pulled the thread and now it’s uneven.”
West held my hand in a familiar way and didn’t seem to think anything about it. I’d hugged him once before, but this skin-to-skin contact caused butterflies to flit around in my stomach.
“I guess you’re right,” I said. “But stray threads make me crazy.”
“It would be a shame to ruin this,” he narrowed his eyes at my shirt. “Are those snitches on your shirt?”
“Yes. Snitches and brooms. But you only notice if you stare; otherwise, it looks like a pattern.”
“You’re one of those people who dreams about going to Hogwarts, aren’t you?”
“Do you mean the real Hogwarts or the amusement park, because the answer to both is yes.”
“I’m sure your owl was blown off course in a storm.” He released my hand. “Do you mind if we run an errand on the way home? My dad wants me to pick something up from the hardware store.”
“If I said it wasn’t okay, would you change your plans?” I asked, just to be contrary.
“Do you have somewhere you need to be?” he asked.
“No. People say, ‘If that’s okay with you’ all the time. Rarely does anyone say, ‘No, that’s not okay.’ So I was just messing with you because I wanted to see how you’d react. You know, testing the balance of the universe and all that.”
West shook his head, but he was smiling while he did it. A smile that made my heart rate kick up a notch.
“Get in the Jeep, Luna,” he said.