“LEGO is not junk, Mother.”
“Whatever you say, dear.” I had a feeling my mom’s brain had already fluttered onto the next thing. “I’m going to ask Theo to do the same. He still has a closet full of books in that house. Probably two closets, actually.”
“Okay, Mom.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I shall swing by the house and grab some of my not-junk belongings.”
“What day?”
“What?”
“What day are you swinging by?”
“I don’t know.” I wanted to get this over with. “I’ll probably just go today after work.”
“Perfect. I’ll leave a list of everything I’d like you to clean out. Have a good day, honey!”
I shook my head, wondering how the hell this conversation had gotten away from me. I’d wanted to know more about why Ellie was back and why my mom had been the only one to know about it, and now here I was, agreeing to clean out my childhood bedroom so my ex-girlfriend could move into it.
“Bye, Mom. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
With that, she hung up.
And I just had this feeling that everything was about to change.
I wasn’t really sure of the specifics, but somehow, I made it through the rest of the workday. In fact, it flew by, and before I knew it, I was dragging my feet to my car and driving out to Rosewood.
It was roughly a thirty-minute drive, and by the time I was turning onto Maple Street, I’d made permanent nail indents in my steering wheel.
I’d been grateful when my millionaire brother bought our mom a house on the lake we always swam in as kids. Not only was it a rad fucking house, but it also meant that I no longer had to go tothishouse.
This house with its wraparound porch and memory-soaked walls. With the weeping willow in the backyard and the large oak trees in front.
Ironically, though, there wasn’t a single maple in sight.
When I pulled up in front of the white two-story with dark shutters, another car already sat along the curb.
It was the same car I’d pulled up next to last night, too. A car I was admittedly relieved had made it back from Minneapolis. A car I was itching to replace, even if it wasn’t my business.
Eleanor was already here.
Because of course she fucking was.
twelve years ago
SULLY
I hated high school a lot less than middle school.
It still sucked. Like, a lot. I hated the block schedule, making the classes unbelievably long. I hated any assignments that used more words than numbers. I hated the tiny desks that my long, restless legs couldn’t fit under.
But there were two things that made it better.
One, my mom took me to the doctor over the summer, and now I took a medication every morning that made me feel a little less like I was crawling out of my skin every time I had to sit through an entire class period. And two, in between those class periods, I got to see my favorite person in the whole wide world.
Not that I’d met every person in the whole wide world, but if I had to guess, I could meet a million, a billion, a trillion people, and Eleanor Summers would still be my favorite one.
Unfortunately, however, her locker was on the opposite side of the building, in the sophomore bay. And mine, regardless of how many times I’d tried to bribe Barb in the front office, was still in the freshman wing.
