“Why don’tyoutell me?”
“Uh, I had a bad exchange with my mom?”
She makes a sound that’s half scoff, half growl, and all contempt.
AM I TAKING CRAZY PILLS?
I splay my fingers, my forearms and hands so tense, they shake. Her irritation is like a contagion. But while hers feels sharp and focused, mine is broad and unspecified. Nothing but a huge, exasperated cloud of confusion. “What are you so mad about?”
“Like you don’t know?”
“KNOW WHAT?”
She purses her lips, and her nostrils flare wide.
“Liesel! If something’s going on, say it!”
“Yousay it.”
The noise that issues from my throat is intelligible. It can only be expressed in special characters: ampersands, asterisks, and at signs.
And a crap ton of exclamation points.
“Why are you being so insufferably vague?” I say.
“I’M BEING INSUFFERABLE?”
“YES!”
“ME?” Her wipers are having to go so fast to clear the snow, they’re almost a blur.
“OBVIOUSLY!”
“Youwouldpretend you have no idea what’s going on. Well, I only have two words for you,Buddy.”
“That was like twenty words already.”
Her glare is sharp enough to pierce armor. “Kayla. Carville.”
I blink, wondering if I heard her right. “Huh?”
“Kayla. Carville.”
“I’m gonna need more words.”
“You know what?” she asks, gripping the steering wheel, her eyes on the taillights in front of us as we merge onto the freeway. “I’m glad this happened. I thought I had real feelings for you. I could have wasted months on you before realizing the truth.”
“The truth of what?!”
“That you areexactlywho I thought you were.”
I bump my head on the dashboard. “Do I have a concussion?”
“Right. Blame everything except the obvious: you.”
I snap upright. Her Prius is going maybe thirty miles an hour on the freeway due to the blizzard conditions. The storm outside can’t compare to the storm in my brain.
“Liesel. I think it’s pretty clear that I have no idea what you’re talking about. If I’ve done something, do us both a favor and come out and say it.”
