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“Sparkle?” I splutter over the word and cough as it clings to the back of my throat. “I don’t think…” But Grandma isn’t finished.
“You always used to have such sparkly eyes when you two were together, and how long has it been? Three, four years?”
“Ten,” I correct, my stomach clenching. My grandparents start grumbling about how fast time passes.
But the last decade has passed by at a snail’s pace for me.
I shake my head, trying to keep on topic. “Did you hear anything about his parents? I asked him today and he…”
My grandparents’ smiles drop as they groan in unison. Then they exchange looks.
“Sad.”
“Very sad, indeed.”
I look from one to the other, my heart picking up speed.
“What happened?”
Grandma looks at me with deep concern. This time she doesn’t even try to hide it. “You didn’t know? Didn’t you hear?”
My grandpa shakes his head with a heavy sigh. “Surely, you must have known. Didn’t anybody tell you?”
“Tell me what?” I ask, my voice raising in pitch.
My heart is hammering inside my chest now. My grandma walks over to me and touches my shoulder, like a nurse giving the worst news to a patient.
“There was an accident.”
I gulp.
Can this day get any worse? First, Shelly catches me spying on Logan from across the street and I had to make a ridiculous lie about losing an earring.
Which I don’t think anyone truly believed.
Then I asked Logan to be my fake boyfriend at the high school reunion. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I brought up his dead parents in the most ignorant, insensitive way.
Now his reaction makes total sense. He must have inherited the house. Coming back to it after all these years must be so painful for him.
I wonder why I didn’t know about any of this. But then I remember giving my grandparents firm instructions to never bring him up in conversation.
Grandma is giving me one of her looks. The kind that feels like I’m being scanned by one of those machines at the airport. You know, the ones that make you look naked for some creep to ogle at in some remote office.
“When did it happen?” I ask, lowering my voice to fit the mood.
Grandma glances over at Grandpa, who offers her his worried smile, then fixes his watery eyes on me. “We thought you already knew…” His voice is full of regret and concern.
My grandma starts picking at her cuticles. She does that when she’s trying to hide something.
I shake my head and my hair swooshes. “About the accident? No. This is the first I’m hearing about it.” An uncomfortable rush of humiliation sweeps through my body.
I wish I had known. I would have handled the whole meeting with Logan so much better if I was aware of that topic bomb.
You know, the kind of topic that ends with a dramatic explosion of feelings and unwanted bodily fluids leaking from the eyes and nose.
I shudder.
Strong emotions make me super uncomfortable. It’s why Leila and I get along so well. She has never cried in front of me. She keeps her emotions in check, even when she’s having the worst day ever.
