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After the break-in, Gia and I have called an unspoken truce. We’re not back on best friend terms by any means, but we are on decent speaking terms, not fighting and arguing the whole time.
She’s about to turn to leave but then sighs and strides toward me, reaching into her purse. “Your eyeliner is two different shapes. Did you use the tape like I showed you?”
She pulls a black liner out of her purse, gives it a shake, then uses my chin to angle my face up. I close my eyes on instinct. “I tried.”
Gia scoffs, clearly not approving as I feel the ink glide on my lids. “Well, next time just ask me.”
I didn’t know we were back ondoing my makeupterms. The break-in must be affecting her more than she’s letting on. As badly as I was shaken having lived through it, I know Gia must be thinking about it too. That’s the only reason she dropped being upset about Mom and is talking to me again.
“All right,” I say, then press on. “You doing okay?”
She clicks the lid back on the eyeliner and steps back.
“I’m fine. Brianna’s outside waiting, so I gotta go.” She backs away to the door and gestures at my face. “That looks way better now. Bye.” And then she’s gone.
I know fixing my eyeliner and updating me on her departure doesn’t mean she’s forgotten about my meeting with Florence, but it feels like a step in the direction of forgiveness, or at least acceptance.
Not even twenty minutes later, as I’m hopping into a pair of jeans, there’s another knock on the door. Zia Stella peeks in. I didn’t realize she was here.
“Hey,” she says gently, entering the rest of the way.
“I’m heading out to work, but I just wanted to check in on you and see how you’re doing after everything that happened.”
She never accused me of making it up for attention like Dario did, even though I know she probably believes the police officers; this isn’t the first time officers have accused me of wasting their time, nor is it the first time I’ve pointed them at Brandon. But even so, I haven’t brought up the fact that I wasn’t lying to anyone since I left Dario’s office. Maybe she believes me, but I can’t bear the chance Zia Stella might outright deny anyone was in the house if I try to talk to her about it.
“I’m fine,” I say dismissively, not looking her in the eye for fear of seeing judgment there. “Jason will be here soon.” He won’t be getting me until eleven, since he’s coming from after work and I didn’t want to go to the party alone, but I don’t want to sit around with Zia Stella waiting for her to bring it up. I’m tired of defending myself.
“All right, I’ll leave you to it then,” she says, getting the hint. “But I just want you to know I’m always here to talk if you want.” She turns to leave, then pauses. “Oh, wait. I ordered this last week, and with everything going on I forgot to give it to you. I noticed your phone was broken.”
She pulls a small white box from her purse and hands it to me. It’s a brand-new iPhone.
“Oh—I—wow,” I sputter, too stunned to speak.
“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”
She waves me off, like her spontaneously spending a thousand dollars on me is no big deal. “You should have a properly functioning phone, and you currently can’t even see the top half of yours. Anyway, I’ve got to get going, but as I said, I’m always happy to talk if you want.”
I’m too stunned to even reply, and I end up standing in the same spot, staring at the iPhone box for ten minutes after she leaves.
Sure, when I got here, I was given a new room, clothes, and a laptop, but this feels different. I never said I needed a phone, didn’t even tell her mine was broken—she justnoticedit was broken and got me a new one because she wanted to. And she got itbeforeeverything happened, it’s not just asorry someone broke in and scared you half todeathgift.
By the time it’s dark out and I’m sitting in the passenger seat of Jason’s car, I’ve transferred all my data onto my new phone. It’s almost weird that the top of my screen isn’t black and I can see everything on my phone all at once.
“Is that a new phone?” Jason asks when I drop it in the cupholder between us.
“Yeah, uh, my zia got it for me,” I answer, still feeling weird saying it out loud. I’m not used to getting gifts.
He senses my discomfort and changes the subject. “I didn’t see Brandon today. I’m not sure he was at school.”
Jason waspissedwhen I told him what happened. I’ve never seen him so upset before, and he’s normally a really levelheaded person. “Were you looking for him?”
He answers a beat too slowly. “No.”
“Jason.”
“I just wanted to talk to him, I swear!”
“We’ve been over this. I don’t want you to get expelled because of this; it’s not worth it. We’ll take him down our own way.Please, Jason. I’ve already inconvenienced you enough.”
