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“Hey,” I say when I answer. “How are you feeling?”
“Like shit,” she says, then laughs. “I threw up all morning, and my head is killing me. I remember falling into the backseat of your car, and then…that’s about it. I don’t remember how I got inside the house.”
Then I’m sure she doesn’t remember what she told me before I left, either.
“I carried you,” I tell her. “I was scared shitless. I’m sorry you’re sick. I should have…done better.”
“It’s okay. It kind of worked out. Grace has some things she had to do at the church today, and she thinks I have the flu or something, so she left me here and has been keeping her distance so that she doesn’t get sick, too. I plan on milking it the rest of the weekend.”
I force a laugh. “I miss you. It’s nice to hear your voice.”
“I miss you, too,” she says. “I had fun, though. So…thanks.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Anyway, I think I’m going to go back to bed for a little while. I just wanted to talk to you…make sure you’re not mad at me for becoming a problem.”
“You’re not a problem,” I tell her. “I’m not mad at you at all.”
“I love you, Devon.”
“I love you, too. Text me when you can, okay?”
“Okay…bye.”
“Bye.”
After ending the call, I send not everything, but enough to prove my point, to the printer in my dad’s office and then run downstairs to grab it all. I stand there for what feels like the longest time waiting for everything to print. My body must be on high alert due to what I’m trying to do because I actually jump when I hear her voice.
“What are you doing?” Darci asks.
“Fuck! Homework,” I answer.
“Why are you so jumpy?”
“I thought I was the only person here, and I find your presence disturbing.”
“Hey, have you readAnimal Farm?”
I scoff. There it is.
“I’m not doing your homework for you,” I tell her.
“I’ll pay you.”
“I have to watch Ivy; she’ll be here any minute, actually. So, no. And the answer would be no, anyway. I don’t have time.”
I breeze past her and back up the stairs, ignoring whatever protests she yells at my back. I stash the papers in my bag, pull outThe Fires of Heaven, and go back to reading until the doorbell rings.
When I get downstairs, my mom and Ivy are already standing in the living room with Darci.
“Devon said I could go swimming,” Ivy says.
“You look adorable,” Darci tells Ivy. “I love your unicorn towel. I wish I had one.”
“You can borrow it if you want, but you have to give it back,” she tells her.
“Hey, Devon,” my mom says. “I have to run; I got a late start. I’ll leave the booster seat on the front porch. I don’t have any cash, so I sent some money to your Venmo.”
