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thought in her life.
“It’s hot inside,” June said without looking at Arabella. “I think I might
just sit under this tree for a bit.” She didn’t move. “Uh, you can…you could
sit out here too if you want.”
“Are you just saying that because you’re too nice to kick me out of the
spot I was already in before you nearly gave me a heart attack?”
It was impossible to see June’s face clearly, especially still half-blind
from the flashlight, but Arabella could swear that she actually heard
amusement in June’s tone. “Kind of?”
“Well, I’ll take kind of over a hot room. It’s a thousand degrees in there
and the wind isn’t coming the right direction to actually go in the window.
At least out here, I can breathe.”
June made a noise that wasn’t a choke or a gasp or a gurgle, but
something in between. “Think out here,” she echoed softly. “Yeah. That’s
about right.”
She toted her flashlight underneath the tree, sat down abruptly, and
turned it off. Arabella wobbled her way over on unstable legs. It felt strange
to be night blind again. She sat down harder than she meant to, adding a
bruised bottom to the scrapes on her shoulders.
June sat with her back straight, and Arabella was sure to maintain her
distance. She stayed a few feet away, curled around the other side of the
tree. Their backs weren’t to each other, but just about.
“I, uh, I’m sorry,” June eventually said, so quietly that her voice was like
a secondary breeze. “I’m sorry that Summer has, well, that she doesn’t trust
you and that she doesn’t like you. It’s pretty obvious.”
“Hey. I didn’t have to come.”
“Why did you come? If that’s not too rude? I’m not saying I don’t want
you here. To be clear.”
Arabella nodded before she realized that June couldn’t see her. “I know
that. You would never say that and probably never think it. Even back in
