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After I eat, I take a shower and try to sleep. All night, I keep waking up thinking I hear someone trying to break in. And in the short time I’m able to sleep, I have nightmares of being taken away to live in a place I don’t want to live, with people I don’t know.
In the morning, my phone alarm goes off, telling me I need to get ready for work. I’m not going. I need to be here, making a plan for what to do next. I call the diner and leave a message that I’m sick and can’t come in. I doubt Lenny knows that Ted died. It’ll probably take a few days for him to get the news. Ted didn’t have many friends, but he had a favorite bar that he went to a few times a week. He was friends with the bartender and the old guys who sat at the bar with him. One of them will notice he hasn’t been around and eventually they’ll find out what happened.
Over the next hour, I look for jobs. Ted used to tell me I couldn’t get hired because of my arrests and time spent in juvenile detention, which is why he asked his friends to hire me. But now, as I’m actually looking that up, I’m finding it’s not true. Employers can’t even ask if I’ve been arrested, and my records are sealed because I’m a minor. Ted lied to me, which isn’t surprising, but why did he do it? Why did he care where I worked?
This whole time, I could’ve worked at another job instead of that shitty diner. I’ve always hated that job, but I didn’t think I could leave. Now that I know I can, I’m going to quit the diner and find something else. I’ll quit the skating rink too. I like the job, but working there means I’ll have to see Easton, and I don’t want to see him. Easton and I are done.
Someone knocks on the door, startling me so much I fall off my bed. I slowly get up as they knock again. What the hell? Did Easton come back?
“Anyone there?” a guy yells. It’s not Easton. It’s some other guy, someone older. “Nova! You in there?” He knocks again.
It’s Gene, the apartment manager. I keep quiet so he doesn’t know I’m here.
“Nova, if you’re in there, I heard about Ted. With him gone, you gotta be out of here. I’ll give you until the end of the month, which is next week. If your stuff’s still here after that? It’s mine.” He waits a moment, then walks back down the hall.
He’s kicking me out? I thought I could stay if I paid the rent, but I guess I can’t since I’m not 18 and not on the lease. What am I going to do with all my stuff? I can’t put my bed in Ted’s car.
Every minute that goes by seems to get worse. I keep getting new problems to deal with and have no idea what I’m going to do.
3
Easton
“Areyou gonna go over there again?” Jace asks.
“Yeah. I can’t have her thinking I lied to her or she’ll never talk to me again. I’ll go to her apartment, the diner, the rink. I’ll just keep showing up until she talks to me.”
“You did kind of lie to her,” Jace says, putting his feet up on the coffee table.
It’s Friday morning and we’re in his basement, watching TV. I normally spend the day after Thanksgiving watching football with my dad and grandpa. But after yesterday, I don’t even want to see my dad, so I went to Jace’s house.
“How did I lie to her?” I ask.
“You didn’t tell her you were hiding her from us.”
“I wouldn’t call that a lie. She never asked me if anyone knew.”
“Yeah, but girls still think that’s a lie. They expect you to tell them everything, and if you don’t, they get pissed and say you were lying.”
He’s right. And it’s true. I should’ve told her I was keeping her a secret from my family and I should’ve told her why. I just wasn’t ready to. Everything was going great between us and I didn’t want to bring up something that might lead to us fighting. I wasn’t sure she’d understand why I didn’t tell anyone about her. She doesn’t live in this world. She doesn’t know what it’s like.
I know that’s not a good excuse. I should’ve been honest with her. Not telling her the truth just proved her belief that she can’t trust anyone.
“Does she work today?” Jace asks.
“I don’t know. She’d usually be at school on Friday so she’s probably not scheduled to work today.”
“You want to go there and see?”
“Right now?”
“Why not? It’s only nine. We could go there and be back before the game starts.”
“I’m not sure I want you going with me. You treated her like shit on Halloween. If she sees you with me, she’s not going to want to talk to me.”
“So I’ll wait in the car. C’mon, Easton, I gotta get out of here. I’ve been stuck in the house for over a day. I need a break from my family.”
“I’m not even talking to mine.”
