AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You need more magnets. I can’t make copper. Or lithium. Or magnesium.”
“I’ll get you more magnets,” he told me, kissing me on the neck, making me shiver. “I’ll get you anything you need. You can still make… iron.”
I glanced over the letters, snagging out anIand then looking for an extraR, and then sliding it back, remembering iron was one of the stupid ones that made no sense, pulling anFand anEtogether.
“Good job. How about… tungsten?”
I squinted at the letters, trying to make the answer appear out of thin air, and finally shook my head, defeated. “I don’t know that one.”
“That’s okay. It’s a hard one,” he told me, pulling a straight upWto the middle of the fridge.
I growled. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“I know. You know how I remembered it? Just by reminding myself it didn’t make any sense. So, in my head I just saidwhaaaat?W.”
“That is so dumb.”
“I know. But I still remember it four years later, so there you go.”
“It’s easier when I can write them on the paper,” I told him.
“Yeah. Well, you’re gonna do that in a minute. But first, let’s have a snack.”
I took a last look at the letters on the fridge and then splashed them all around, getting a destruction rush, and followed him over to the table, sitting down in front of what I was pretty damn sure was a PB&J with apple slices.
“Okay, this is legit some kindergarten shit,” I told him.
“I’m offended,” he said, picking up half his sandwich, not sounding offended at all. “This is my go-to homework snack.”
“You eat peanut butter and jelly by yourself. While you do your homework.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing. It’s totally on brand for a huge nerd, it’s just really, really embarrassing.”
“Mmmhmm. Eat your snack, brat.”
I looked down at my plate, a classic, cliche I’m-a-fucking-child meal, like mac and cheese with hot dogs or dinosaur chicken nuggets, and I shoved an apple slice into my mouth because if I didn’t I was pretty sure I might start crying. Maybe I couldn’t tell the difference between being daddied and just being cared about, and that was pretty fucking pathetic and twisted and also I wasn’t sure it mattered all that much because he wanted to do both. Give me my childhood back or something like that, he’d said. A do-over. I could be into that, even if the rules were a little murky.
The food was good, anyway. I liked strawberry jelly and smooth peanut butter and apples that were red but just a little bit sour. Hell of a lot better than Spaghettios from a can or nothing, which was usually my go-to, and my stomach was a fuckinghugefan of me these days. Well, a fan of Caleb, anyway.
“Was any of that true?” he asked me, getting back up for some water, pouring big glasses for us both because the guy loved his hydration. “About your Spanish quiz?”
“Yeah, I got an A,” I told him, finishing half my sandwich. “I always get an A, it’s just a few sentences, it’s easy. I wrote that we won a game on Friday and I ate pizza and studied for my Chemistry test. Nothing X-rated.”
“Good job.”
I was pretty sure I was never going to get tired of hearing him say good job, even though he said it a lot, too much, really. It was another deep deficit I had probably. Not enough sleep, not enough food, not enoughgood job, good work, good game, good boy.“Yeah. Whatever.”
“What about practice?”
I shrugged. “What about it? You saw.”
“I only saw a little. And I was only watching you.”
“It was…” I sighed. “Walker doesn’t look good right now. He and Ellis aren’t vibing. Like at all. Coach put Howser in to run some routes, but that’s worse, really. It’s always Walker and Ellis. For years, they just click. So Ellis can at least… guess how he’s going to be off. Which isn’t really any better. There’s just no click. Walker’s totally outside his game. It’s stressing everybody out. Like… maybe yips bad, I don’t know.” I paused. “You know what that is? Yips?”
He made a face and lifted one shoulder, almost cringing when he guessed. “Like a baseball thing?”
