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She pushes her chair away from the table with a dramatic, “Fine.”
Waylon’s already heading for the stairs across the room.
In the dining room, Izzy gives me the biggest smile. “Bye, Mason,” she says, her cheeks turning all pink.
I feel my neck grow hot, and my smile shakes, my voice no more than a whisper as I say bye back. Mrs. Montgomery says she’ll be up soon. Izzy races after Waylon, shoving him, and Mrs. Montgomery’s yelling after them, “No rough-housing on the stairs!”
The phone rings again, and Mrs. Montgomery leaves the dining room.
Mr. Montgomery’s in the living room—I can hear whistles and cheers coming through the walls. He must be watching football, or something.
For the first time since yesterday morning, it’s just Jeremy, or rather, JJ and me.
I shove my homework in my folder, and start putting things back in my bag.
Mrs. Montgomery pokes her head in. “Your mom’s running a few minutes late. Got tied up with work.”
I nod. “Okay.”
She smiles and looks at JJ, then me, then leaves the kitchen. I hear her muffled voice through the walls as she calls out something to her husband.
Inside my backpack, I see my MP3 player and headphones. I haven’t listened to them since this morning when Momma took me to school.
Pulling them out, I walk around the table to where JJ sits. He’s got his head downturned, hands clutching his comic book.
“Is that Ultimate Spider-Man? I only have the first two issues,” I tell him.
A long moment passes where I start to wonder if maybe he’s going to ignore me.
He gulps loudly, then whispers, “Y-yeah. It’s, um, Volume 2, Issue 3.”
I smile. “Cool.”
More silence.
“So, uh, do you know Pearl Jam?”
He lifts his head, eyes finally meeting mine. It was hard to see them yesterday, what with his long blond hair coverin’ them, but now there’s nothing to hide them. As if thinkin’ the same thing, he frowns and looks away, bunching his shoulders by his ears. “No…”
“Here.”
I unwind the cord and go to hand him the headphones, but he’s not looking at me, so I just shove them on his head instead. He flinches back, brown eyes going wide as they dart up to mine.
“Sorry,” I mutter, pulling back my hands.
He doesn’t remove the headphones though, like I expect him to. He just adjusts them so they’re fully covering his ears, watching me curiously from under his lashes.
Biting the corner of my lip, I pull up the song I want, and hit Play. It’s loud—too loud—he flinches again.
“Sorry,” I mutter again, quickly lowering it, but not too much. Just a couple clicks.
It’s muffled, but I can still hear the opening guitar riff—that’s what Mr. Gavin told me it’s called. He said he can play a little bit. Maybe I can learn that too. I wonder if it’s similar to piano, with E notes and flats and sharps.
JJ’s eyes grow all big and he sits a little straighter, and this time when he meets my gaze, he doesn’t look away.
His mouth parts, and I feel my own stretching into a big grin. Nodding, I say, “See?”
He probably can’t hear me, but he must be able to read it off my lips, ’cause he nods.
