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Both brows raise this time. She doesn’t believe me.
“It’s complicated.”
“If you say so.” She wheels her blue hybrid toward the door, and I jog over to open it for her.
“Has she done anything else on her list?” It’s only been a week since I’ve seen her. Still—she could have done something—karaoke, or maybe she had more driving lessons with Bob.
“I stopped passing notes in fifth grade. If you want to know what she’s up to, you’ll have to go see her.” She pauses halfway through the door. “You may be nice, but you’ve got no brain.”
Wow. Nice kid. She reminds me a bit of my sister this minute. I scowl at her judgment—it comes so easy. I don’t need to be weighed by a kid who doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
“You let her go,” Nikki says. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard.”
My scowl fades. Hearing everything right in those very wrong words.
Maybe Nikki does know what she’s talking about.
39
Meredith
“Ineed to get out,” I say, hefting a box from my new living room up the stairs to my new bedroom. “Not like outside. I’m outside every day. But like, out with people.”
“I still can’t believe you’re moving so quickly. My mom said it took us months to find this place.” Nikki says through the speaker of my phone.
“Two weeks. Bob says it’s probably a record. But the townhome was empty. I knew I wanted it before I even saw it.”
“How?”
“Because I didn’t care about the layout or how up-to-date the fixtures were. I wanted a safe place, and I’m ready to be on my own.” I drop the box of clothing down in the middle of the tiny master bedroom. It’s smaller than my room back at Bob’s. Butallof this is mine, not just the bedroom. “Hey, do you want to go bed shopping with me tomorrow?”
“You don’t have a bed?”
“I don’t have anything. No bed. No table. No couch. No TV.” I laugh. It really does feel like an adventure. I didn’t ask Uncle Bob for any help and he didn’t offer—but then, he’s already helped. The inheritance he and Cindy gave me is enough to live on for years. That, and he did give me a place to live until I was ready to be on my own.
“No TV?” She makes some kind of unintelligible noise. “I can’t tomorrow.”
“Didn’t summer vacation start?”
“Yeah. But I also got a regular gig babysitting the Brown twins across the street.”
“Hey, way to go,” I tell her. And I mean it. Only… I need to get out. I need to see people! I’ve learned I’m a people person. College doesn’t start for another two months. Sooo….
“You should call Coco.”
“Coco?” My throat constricts with her name. Though it isn’t really her name that makes me emotional. If I’m thinking Coco, I’m thinking Levi.
Levi, who I haven’t seen in almost three weeks.
“Yeah. Just because doe-doe-head doesn’t want to be friends, doesn’t mean you can’t be friends with his sister.”
That isn’t what he said. In fact, he said that hedidwant to be friends. Just friends. I’m the one who put a kibosh on everything. I’m the one who said—I’m out.
“Meredith?”
“You’re right. I’ll call her.” I miss Coco.
I hang up with Nikki and open up my Instagram app. “I am not afraid of making phone calls. And I’m not afraid of Coco.” Both are true. And yet, something inside of me feels apprehensive.
