Chapter Six
Everything changed on Wednesday morning. My phone rang on the way to Introduction to Heat Transfer. I didn’t recognize the number, but it was local. I answered anyway, expecting a sales call or spam message and hoping for something better.
“Hello?” I said, trying to keep the hustle out of my voice. My next class was on the other side of campus. I hated being late anywhere.
“May I speak with Olivia Dawson?” a man asked.
“Speaking.” I hid the irritation in my voice. Most spam calls started like this.
“Ms. Dawson, my name is Rex Anderson and I’m the senior engineer at JenCar.”
I stopped at the fountain and sat on the cold concrete.
“We would like you to come in and interview for our internship program. Will you be available tomorrow morning?”
“Yes sir, anytime.” It was happening. I was getting my shot.
“Great. We’ll see you at ten.”
“Yes sir. Thank you, sir.”
I texted Paige as soon as we hung up. She responded with a thumbs up emoji followed by a confetti giphy. I barely contained my excitement during class. The minute it let out, Devon caught up with me.
“What’s got you in such a good mood?” he asked, falling into step beside me.
My grin widened. “My interview with JenCar tomorrow.”
“That’s great. Congrats.” He smiled with a mischievous glint in his eyes. I’d seen that look before, and it made me nervous. “Oh, hey, I almost forgot.” He dug a notebook out of his backpack and handed it to me. “I promised my notes from Dorchester’s class.”
“Thanks.” I put the notebook in my bag, a little surprised he had come through. “I appreciate it.”
“What time’s your interview?” he asked as we started walking toward the center of campus.
“Ten.” My step bounced more than normal when I thought about the possibility of getting my dream internship.
“Wanna grab lunch after?”
I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and Devon kept walking. A few strides later, he realized I wasn’t there and turned around.
“Did you just ask me out?”
Devon smiled and dipped his head as he walked back to my side. “Well, yeah. I mean, we’ll get done at the same time, so why not just grab some food together—”
“Get done with what at the same time?” I asked, dread filling my stomach.
“The interview.” He cocked his head to the right. “You didn’t think you were the only one interviewing for the internship tomorrow, did you?”
“Wait a minute.” I swallowed this new information hard. “When were you going to tell me they called you? Or was it going to be a surprise?”
“I just told you.”
“After you asked me out.” Who did this guy think he was?
“So?”
I stared at him, wondering how such a brilliant mind could be such an idiot. He should’ve just said he had an interview, too. It was like he wanted to throw me off my game. Every single class since freshman year, we’d been in this dance to one up each other. This was just his latest play. He didn’t really want to have lunch with me.
“You’re unbelievable,” I said as I pushed around him.
“What I’d do this time?” he said.
I just kept walking.
…
Thursday morning, I woke up before the sun, partly because of habit and partly because of nerves. I had five hours to think about what I needed to do, what I needed to say, how I needed to say it. It was nerve racking. The only thing that could keep my mind off the interview was cleaning my apartment. And that didn’t take long.
The apartment wasn’t anything fancy, but I fell in love with the exposed brick and big window. The living-room-slash-bedroom-slash-dining-room was the perfect size for one person. My daybed doubled as a couch, and the coffee table had a lid that lifted into a table that I used as a desk. There was a small storage drawer underneath that hid my laptop. A nightstand doubled as an end-table and a dresser for my delicates.
When I moved in, Dad brought my old armoire and dresser from Kerns, driving five hours to surprise me with it. I’d thought it was sweet until I realized he’d only driven down to make sure the neighborhood was safe. When two of my older brothers went to college, he didn’t think twice about where they lived. They could’ve been under a cardboard box in a crack house and Dad would’ve said “boys will be boys.”
Not for the first time, I wondered what my life would’ve been like had Mom not died when Bradley was born. Would she have supported me? What would it have been like not to cook and clean for seven other people? It wasn’t like I was Snow White or anything. I loved my family and loved taking care of them. If it wasn’t for Henry, I probably wouldn’t have had much of a life during high school. I shook those thoughts from my head. It didn’t matter. The past was the past and the what-ifs were like poison. They’d eat away at your soul until every single detail of your life became one.
I didn’t have a TV, opting to watch everything on my laptop. Most of my time was spent reading anyway. Staying up with the scientific community was more important than whatever show won an Emmy. I read as much as I could about aerodynamics, the aerospace industry, and the latest in robotics. If it gave me even the slightest edge in the real world, I’d take it. And I needed it.
The small kitchen and three-quarters bath took up the back half of the apartment. I would’ve loved a full bath tub. That was the only downfall of the apartment. Paige had thought it was too small. She wanted me to room with her at the student apartments on the other side of campus. I loved her, but I didn’t want to have a roomie anymore. I’d seen far too much of Jayce, and the feeling was mutual. If we’d gotten an apartment together, he would’ve been around all the time. It had worried me that she’d get upset, but she understood and found someone else to room with.
I wanted privacy for once in my life. Having four older brothers and two younger ones meant there was always someone in your space. I had my own room where my brothers always had to share, but Bradley and Jacob used to sneak in and sleep on the floor. Especially this time of year. Bradley’s birthday was coming up and the anniversary of Mom’s death.
The cream paint contrasted the red brick wall. Only one picture hung by a nail that was already there when I moved in. It was taken the day my oldest brother Tony shipped out for boot camp. I was just eleven. It was the last time we’d all been together. Tony had been back a few times in the last ten years, but Nick, Adam, or Trevor had been gone. I hadn’t seen Tony in two years. We emailed, but he used his rare videochats and phone calls for Dad. I missed him so much. Tony was the one who always supported me.
When I looked at the rest of my apartment, it was clean and neat. And impersonal. Why hadn’t I ever noticed that before? There wasn’t another photo visible. Sure, I had a photo album on my bookcase, but when was the last time I looked at it? The only thing that said Liv was the pale-yellow fan quilt folded neatly on the daybed. Mom had sewn the fans, but she died before finishing the quilt. I took a sewing class during high school. After making a couple of quilts for my 4H club, I finally felt comfortable enough to finish it. I slept under it every night since. Even over winter break, I took it home.
I missed my mother, but worse yet, I barely remembered her. I was seven when she died. At first I hated Bradley. If he hadn’t been born, if Mom hadn’t gotten pregnant with him, she never would’ve died. I had blamed him, but he was so small when Dad brought him home. And he needed someone to take care of him. Dad tried, but he had to plan the funeral and go to work. My brothers were imbeciles when it came to babies. Taking care of Bradley and Jacob fell on my shoulders.
The tea kettle whistled, ripping me out of memories I didn’t want to face before an interview. I’d managed to kill two hours cleaning. The baseboards shone and the grout in the bathroom was spotless. I still had three hours to go. After showering, I took my mug and settled onto the daybed with my quilt to read Fundamentals of Thermodynamics.
My phone dinged with a new email from DMiller. I didn’t need to let him get into my head, but I was curious. I opened it.
Good luck. My lunch offer still stands.
I marked it as spam and sent it to the trash. Getting this job wasn’t about luck. And I was going to prove that to him.