Page 43 of Goodbye Days

“That’s too bad.”

“Yeah. It used to kind of embarrass me when I was little.”

Jesmyn looks aghast. “What? That’s like the sexiest accent.”

“Aggggh! Every girl!”

“Just being honest.”

“Just grossing me out.” I wipe away a drip of sweat before it can get in my eye.

“You wish you were as cool as your dad.”

“I wish I had his accent, for sure. So, not that I wouldn’t love to talk all day about how sexy my dad is, but how was practicing?”

Her eyes brighten. “Awesome. The school has a Steinway concert grand. It sounded unreal. I mean, the action on that piano is, like, orgasmic. How do I settle for my piano at home now?”

Hey, I understand what that’s like—to go from an awesome situation to a far less awesome one. “Oh, yeah,” I say. “That piano’s action is the best. They say playing it is like dipping your fingers in warm butter.”

“Smartass. That is what it’s like. Speaking of playing, how was playing hooky?”

“It blew. Georgia was basically like ‘I told you so,’ and I tried to work on my college admission essay instead of sitting around, but I froze up. What did you think of NAA?”

“It was cool but scary. At my old school, I was definitely the best musician. Here, I’m a lot more average. I was listening to some of the others play and they’re amazing. But I guess it’s good practice for if I get into Juilliard. Everybody was supernice, at least.”

“Yeah, how was lunch with Alex Bishop? Did he share his, like, wolf-semen shake or whatever he eats for lunch?” I try to sound light and nonirritated.

Jesmyn gives a little squeal of disgust, giggles, and covers her mouth. “That’s nasty.”

I seize my opening, doing an infomercial-guy voice. “Wolfseed. The only energy shake containing real, one-hundred-percent wolf sperm harvested from organic, free-range wolves. Guaranteed to endow you with vim and vigor so you can dance all day and night. Order now and receive a container of our shark-penis protein powder…absolutely free.”

She giggles harder and tries to cover my mouth with her hands. “Stop. You’re going to make me barf.”

I notice how crooked her fingers are; how they would only look right curled on piano keys. They’re beautiful.

“But seriously,” I say.

“Alex was nice, but he has a shirtless picture of himself as his phone’s home screen. Ain’t nobody got time for that.”

“Eli hated Alex.”

Jesmyn’s smile dissolves. “Why?”

“Because Adair dated him and he dumped her about a week after she lost her virginity to him.”

“Ouch.”

“Everyone called them ‘the ABs.’ Alex Bishop; Adair Bauer. And also because they both have insane dancer abs. They were an NAA celebrity couple briefly.”

“That would explain why Adair kept looking at me like she wanted to sever my jugular with toenail clippers. I thought it was because you and I had been hanging out.”

“I’m sure that too. You did not earn any points with Adair today.”

“Because I had so many to begin with. She’s always been weird to me. Like I was sucking up too much of Eli’s life or something.”

“She and I were never best friends or anything, but we used to be friends.”

Our conversation sputters out as we walk the last few hundred yards to the gates of Percy Warner Park. So we stroll quietly under the thickening forest canopy covering the road, the leaves filtering the sunlight to a pale emerald.