AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What for?”
“To study. And she’ll probably stay for dinner.”
“Good.”
Frankie starts down the hall.
“She might stay the night.”
Frankie stops on her threshold. “Like, in your room?”
I clear my throat. “Yeah.”
“Gross.”
Then she disappears, closes the door shut behind her, and I’m standing there like a jackass, unsure whether to count that conversation as a success or a failure.
There’s snow flurries that afternoon. It’s too early for snow.
I’m watching them fall in fuzzy, lazy swoops when I see Laurie come out of the house and go into his workshop.
Frankie’s in her room. She came out a few minutes after our talk, asked me for a ruler and some paper from my art class sketchbook, and then returned to her cave. Later, she emerged again and said her pencils all sucked and she had to use the set I bought for my art class.
I gave her one of them and the sharpener. She disappeared.
Bored with my reading, I text Caroline.
It’s snowing, FFS.
She texts back, I noticed.
When are you coming over?
Little while. I’m writing.
You think the roads are slippery?
It’s melting, Oregon boy. Too warm for it to stick.
Come over, then.
What are you doing?
Reading about Stalin.
How’s Stalin?
Megalomaniac. How are the Irish?
Such a problem.
Come over.
I need to finish this draft.
Come over.
Yeesh.
