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“See you tomorrow, Dani.”
I don’t reply, instead I slip out the door and to my next class, thankful the day is almost over.
Chapter Five
The lights in the Walgreens are obnoxiously bright.
Do they keep them like that so people will buy faster and get the hell out of here?
I peruse the shelves of nail polish. Every shade of blue and purple imaginable, but suddenly I’m not feeling those, instead gravitating toward the oranges. Maybe it’s the fall lover in me.
I pick up a few shades, reading the names—a polish has to have a funny name or I won’t buy it. Finally, I settle on a retro rust orange from O.P.I. called Chop Sticking To My Story.
I wonder who gets hired to make up these names and how I could get their job.
My Heart Is In Smither-Greens.
Yellow, Mate.
I should start keeping a list of my ideas.
My phone starts ringing in my back pocket and I slip it out. Sage’s name stares back at me and I wince, starting down the candy aisle—I can’t go to the drugstore and not buy candy, that’s insane.
“Hello?”
He exhales in relief. “You’re okay.”
“Yeah.”
“I just got home from work, where are you? There’s no note, and you didn’t text. I was worried when you weren’t in the condo.”
“I’m sorry.” I truly am, because I should’ve been more considerate. I forget that while Sage’s trauma is different, he’s been through a lot in these last months. “I ran down to Walgreens. I wanted to get a new nail polish.”
“Dani, you have like a million.”
“I wanted another. None of those were right.”
“Well, do you want me to pick you up?”
“I’m a block away. I’ll get some candy, check out and be home in a few.”
“I brought Chinese home for dinner.”
“Sounds yummy. I … I love you, Sage.”
“Love you, too, D. Just … let me know next time where you’re going, please?”
“I will. Promise.”
I hang up the phone, tucking it carefully into my pocket.
I grab a bag of Hershey’s Kisses for myself and a box of Milk Duds for Sage.
It doesn’t take me long to check out and I make the short trek back to the building. That’s the plus side of my brother living in a condo, I’m in walking distance to everything.
I enter the sleek building and head up in the elevator to his floor.
I use my key attached to a keychain that says I HEART NY from a trip when we went there when I was very young, before my dad died. I don’t even remember the trip, but the keychain was his and now it’s mine. It’s one of the only things of his I have.
