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“Hey, it was just a question. Don’t be getting on my case.” He takes my plate and cuts the omelet in half, putting it next to what’s left of his French toast.
Mara appears again. “Is that gonna be it?” She holds the bill up in front of us.
“Yeah, we’re good,” I say. “I’ll take the check.”
She hands it to me, then remains there, staring at me.
“What’s going on?” I say. “Is there something on my face?”
“She called her,” Jace says, his mouth full of food. “And she’s not sure if she should tell you.”
“He’s good,” Mara says, glancing at him.
Jace is usually clueless as to what’s going on around him, but today for some reason, he’s picking up on stuff better than I am.
“Did she answer?” I ask Mara.
“Yeah.”
I wait for her to say more, but she doesn’t.
“And? What did she say?”
“That she’s tired and isn’t feeling good. She said she might stay home tomorrow too.”
“Did she say what’s wrong? Is it her stomach? The flu?”
Jace turns to me. “What the hell? How are you not getting this?”
“Getting what?”
“She’s not sick. She’s avoiding you. That’s why she didn’t come to work. She knew you’d show up here and she doesn’t want to see you.”
“She needs the money. She’s not going to miss work just to avoid me.”
“She didn’t sound sick on the phone,” Mara says.
If Nova’s giving up the chance to make money to avoid seeing me, this may be more serious than I thought. If she’s this angry with me, I may not be able to get her back.
I really fucked this up. I never should’ve kept her a secret. I should’ve told my parents the truth, and stood up to them when they tried to keep me away from her. But because I didn’t, I lost Nova’s trust. I lost what we had—our friendship, our relationship. I may have even lost the chance to ever talk to her again.
I’m not giving up. I’ll find a way to talk to her, and when I do, I’ll tell her everything. She deserves to hear the truth, the real reason I was keeping her a secret, part of which I didn’t even know myself until Jace pointed it out.
I need some time to think about this. I can’t be honest with her if I’m not being honest with myself. Were there other reasons I hid her from my family and friends? What if I really was ashamed of her, ashamed of my friends seeing me with her? If that’s true, I’m more like my adoptive parents than I thought. I’m more concerned with appearances than how I treat people. I hope that’s not true, but if it is, I’m going to change it.
4
Nova
It’sSaturday night and I still don’t know what to do. I skipped work again today so I could look for jobs, but I kept thinking it might be better to just leave town. Start my life somewhere new, where nobody knows me, and where there’s no chance of running into Easton. I could quit school, get my GED, and work two or three jobs so I could afford an apartment. There’s no reason for me to stay in Milwaukee, and being here just reminds me of things I’d rather forget, like living with Ted… and being with Easton.
Easton hasn’t called me today. He hasn’t stopped by either. Mara said he went to the diner yesterday, but that he wasn’t there today. Maybe he’s given up. I’m surprised he didn’t try harder, but I guess it just proves that he really wasn’t invested in this relationship. I was just the girl he thought he could con into having sex with him. It worked, and now he’s moved on.
It’s good he’s not bothering me. I don’t have time to deal with him when I’m busy trying to figure out what to do with my life. What am I going to do with my stuff? Looking around my room, I try to figure out what will fit in Ted’s car. My clothes and the TV are all I could take, but I’m not taking the TV. It’ll just remind me of Easton. And I can’t take the bed or the dresser. Wherever I end up, I’ll just have to sleep on the floor until I can afford to buy furniture.
There’s a sound coming from the front door, like someone’s messing with the lock. Is it the landlord? He can’t kick me out. I’m supposed to have three more days here.
I sneak out to the hall and listen as the person struggles with the door handle, jiggling it and mumbling curse words. The landlord wouldn’t have this much trouble with the key, so then who’s at the door? Is someone trying to break in?
