“I want to explain. I will. I just—Yumi is waiting in the car, and I want—”
“Yumi is waiting in the car?” Dad’s eyes go wide with alarm. “Noelle, tell me Yumi is not sitting in your car, alone, at ten o’clock at night.”
“Well, yeah,” I admit sheepishly.
He stares at me, waving a hand toward the door. “Go get her.”
My mouth opens and closes. “I—but—I don’t want her to—ask questions,” I finish, feeling that floaty dissociate-y feeling come over me again, like a plastic bag covering my head and cutting off my air supply.
“About what?” He shakes his head. “Aboutme?”
“Yeah.” I run a hand over my braids, feeling the way the strands weave over and under each other. “She doesn’t know about…everything. And I don’t want you to…you know?”
Heaving a big sigh, my dad stands, pulling me into a hug. “Sweet girl. I’m an adult. I’ll be fine answering questions. You don’t have to protect me.”
He says that, but he’s wrong. I know he doesn’t want to be a burden on me. And he isn’t. Protecting my dad is the most important thing in my life, just like protecting me is the most important thing in his. Since we lost Mom, I’m the only one left to protect him. All we have is each other.
I squeeze him back before taking a step away. “All right. I’ll go get her. But we only have a few minutes left to letThe Adventureverseknow what our decision is.” I squirm. “Can I tell them it’s okay?”
Is it okay?
My dad’s face settles into neutrality. “I don’t know what is going on, exactly, Noelle. But I raised a smart, capable daughter. If you want to do this, if you think it’s the right choice, then I’ll be cheering you along every step of the way.”
A weight lifts off my shoulders.
“Now,” my dad says as he lowers himself back onto the couch. “Go get Yumi so you two can tell me what the hell is happening.”
I give him a hug before returning to the car. At my knock on the window, Yumi startles. I hear the doors click from unlocked to locked. When she notices it’s only me, she unlocks them again. My dad was right. She really was a sitting duck out here.
I pull on the handle, opening the door but not getting inside.
“What did he say?” she asks.
“He said to bring you inside before you get murdered out here.” I jerk my head toward the house, beckoning her over. “So, don’t mention that you left the car unlocked or he’ll never shut up about it.”
“I won’t,” she assures me coolly, climbing out of the passenger side. I hope my dad isn’t able to tell that Yumi hasn’t fully defrosted toward me.
I take a deep breath. “Listen, I never told him what…happened,” I say before she can round the car. It feels safer to discuss with a one-ton hunk of metal between us.
She freezes, her composed confidence melting away. “You didn’t?”
My grip tightens on the door handle. I shake my head. “No.”
“But you tell your dad everything,” she protests, like she can convince me that I did, in fact, tell him what happened between us.
“Well, I didn’t tell him that.”No. This is a bad ideaechoes in my head. “And I don’t want to now, okay?”
I can only see the top half of her face over the car, but I hear the frown as she says, “Okay. I won’t say anything.”
“And don’t tell him I want to do this for him. Also, I know I told you he’s sick, but he looks really different. So, don’t make him feel weird about it.”
Yumi recoils but reins in her reaction just as quickly. “I wouldn’t?” she says, her voice so full of defensiveness that it comes out a question.
“I know, I know.” And I do know. Yumi wouldn’t make mydad feel uncomfortable on purpose, but I can’t let her walk into my apartment without warning her about how severely different he is from the last time she saw him. “Just…I just had to say something.”
I pray she can read in my expression all the things I’m not saying, but I’m not sure Yumi knows me like that anymore.
Chapter 8
