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“You don’t even know if anyone’s home. It’s ten in the morning. Your dad’s at work, Jenna’s at school, and your mom’s probably at the store.”
“My mom will be home. She’ll yell at me for not being at school.”
“Okay, well, I’m going in.” I open the door and don’t see anyone. “She’s not here.”
Easton follows me inside. “I need to eat. I’m starving.”
“Me too.”
We go in the kitchen and see Easton’s mom walking in from the laundry room.
“Easton!” She runs up to him and hugs him. “I’m so happy you’re home.”
He doesn’t say anything.
His mom lets him go and pulls me into a hug. “Are you two okay?”
“We’re fine,” I say. “Just a little hungry.”
“Let me make you something.” She races to the fridge.
“Mom, we can do it ourselves,” Easton says.
“I made banana bread.” She opens a container and shows it to us. “Would you like some?”
“I would.” I glance at Easton, wishing he’d stop being so mad at her. “You want some?”
“I’m not hungry. I’m gonna go take a shower.”
His mom’s smile turns to a frown as she watches him leave.
“He’s tired,” I say, taking a piece of banana bread.
“Let me get you a plate.” She gets one from the cupboard and hands it to me.
Maybe I should be mad at her like Easton is, but for some reason, I’m not. I think I’m so used to people lying to me and disappointing me that it doesn’t bother me as much as it does Easton. He’s been living in a bubble where bad things rarely happen, and when they do, he has people around to help him. I never had that. Bad things were always happening to me—so much so that I expected them to. So finding out Easton’s mom is the reason I was with Ted doesn’t make me hate her. She didn’t know he was a horrible person. As for her keeping me away from Easton, I’m angry about that, but I’m not going to hate her for it. She’s treated me with nothing but kindness since I moved in here, so why punish her for what she did in the past?
“Do you think he’ll ever talk to me again?” Penelope asks as we sit at the kitchen table.
“Yeah, he just needs time to get over it.”
“Oh! I didn’t get you a drink.” She jumps up and goes to the fridge, coming back with a glass and a carton of pineapple-orange juice. “I noticed you liked this kind the best so I got you some more.” She pours it in the glass.
She noticed what kind of juice I drank? And got me more? She’s really trying hard to make me like her, and I do. Nobody’s ever been this nice to me except Easton. Penelope’s made some mistakes, but she’s still better than Ted and my dad, and they’re my actual family.
She sits down across from me. “Nova, I need to apologize for what happened last night. Stephen shouldn’t have gone off like that, saying those things about your mother.”
“It’s fine. I needed to know, in case I turn out just like her.”
She frowns. “This is why I didn’t want him telling you that. I didn’t want you thinking that’s your future.”
“Maybe it is.” I take a drink of the juice.
“If it happens, there are medications you could take, but Nova, I really don’t think that it will.” She pauses. “What do you think about taking a few classes next year?”
“Like go to college?” I laugh. “No college would take me, and I don’t have money for that.”
“It doesn’t have to be college. There are all kinds of training programs for whatever interests you. You could take culinary classes, or learn how to do hair, or take childcare classes and be a nanny. You could do anything you want.”
