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“You can finish it later.” Penelope stops me as I pass her, feeling my forehead. “You still feel hot. I went to the drugstore and spoke with the pharmacist. He gave me something else to try to bring your fever down. You should take it before you rest.”
“You went out?” Jenna whines. “Why didn’t you bring me with you?”
“I just went to the place down the street. I was only gone a few minutes.”
We leave Jenna’s room and go back downstairs to the kitchen. The food has all been put away and it’s back to being spotless.
“I poured you some juice,” Penelope says, nodding toward the glass that’s on the counter as she takes some pills from a bottle. “Here. He said to start with two.”
“Thank you for doing that,” I say, taking the pills. “When I get my bag, I might have some money in there to pay you back.”
I don’t think I do. I thoroughly searched my bag last Friday when I needed gas money and couldn’t find any.
“Nova, you are not paying me back,” she says, laughing a little, like the idea is completely ridiculous. I don’t get it. I’m not her kid. She barely knows me. She shouldn’t have to pay for my medicine or anything else I need. Ted didn’t, and he was family. “I also got you a pack of underwear,” she says, lowering her voice. “It’s nothing fancy, but it’s all they had. It’s in the wash now, along with the clothes you had on when you got here. I’ll bring everything down when it’s done.”
”You really don’t have to do all this. Letting me stay here is enough. You don’t have to cook for me or clean my clothes.”
She’s giving me that sad smile again, like she feels sorry for me. She doesn’t need to. Once I’m better, I’ll figure out what to do. Getting a job is first, or finding a place to live. Maybe I could go back to the shelter and see if a spot opened up.
“Where’s Easton?” I ask.
She sighs. “He went to get your things. I told him he was not to drive in this weather, but he snuck out before I could catch him.”
“How long has he been gone?”
“About an hour.”
An hour? The park’s only 20 minutes away. What if he got in an accident? What if he’s hurt, all because he went to get my bag? He did it for me, because I kept insisting I needed it. Why did I do that? Why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut?
He could be in a ditch right now, passed out and freezing to death, because of me.
“I have to go find him,” I say, running to the door.
“Nova, wait!” Penelope runs after me, stopping me and turning me toward her. “You are not going out in a snowstorm. I’m sure Easton is fine. We’ve taught him how to drive in this type of weather. He’s probably just being cautious and going slow.”
“But what if…” I break into tears, probably because I’m tired and on drugs and sick. Or it could be because I love Easton more than anything and don’t think I’d survive if something happened to him.
16
Easton
“What’s going on?”I ask, walking in the door and seeing my mom hugging Nova.
“Easton!” Nova yanks away from my mom and lunges at me, hugging me like she hasn’t seen me in years.
My mom smiles at me. “She was very worried about you.”
I drop the duffle bag and hug her back. “Why were you worried?”
“Because you took forever to get here.” She sniffles. “I thought something happened to you.”
I pull back to look at her and see she was crying. “I’m fine. I’m right here. I just went slow so it took forever.”
“How are the roads?” my mom asks.
“Bad. Really slick. I parked the Jeep on the street so I could plow the driveway.”
“Thanks, honey. That’d be a big help.”
