AllFreeNovel
Share Us
From PlainJane2 to GothamGuardian5:
If today had a theme song, what would yours be? Mine is Shake It Off by T. Swift.
From GothamGuardian5 to PlainJane2:
As a Taylor Swift aficionado, you’ll never need to specify when it’s her. I know. Also, extra points for that. Mine would be I Will Survive.
“OH MY GOSH,” I SAY through a laugh. “We can’t really do this.”
“We probably shouldn’t,” Graham says.
We’re seated side by side at the table in the break room, which smells like day-old coffee. A vending machine makes a buzzing noise as we lean in toward each other, huddled over his phone displaying an Amazon page featuring a life-like fake mouse. He pulled it up after I made the comment that we should get some to leave around the ER to scare Evie.
“We really can’t, though,” I say. “She’d know it was us.”
“True,” he agrees, putting his phone back in his pocket.
I lean away from him, back toward my partially eaten burrito. I’ve barely touched it, since the conversation has been much more interesting.
“But,” I say, tilting my head. I touch my bottom lip with my index finger. “Should we save it for a rainy day, at least? Like when she’s being especially witchy?”
He pulls his phone back out and then a couple of clicks later, looks up at me and says, “Done.”
I laugh. “This is only on an if-we-need-it basis.”
“Like backup.”
“Exactly.”
“Who knows—maybe it’ll help her. Might end up being like exposure therapy or something.”
“I doubt it,” I say. “I’ve never seen her like that before. I think she’d need real therapy for something like that.”
He leans back in his seat, eyeing me with curiosity. “So, what have you been up to, Price?”
I’m not sure why he’s started calling me by my last name, but I don’t hate it. It’s strange how our dynamic has changed in just an afternoon. We went from barely talking to jumping into a sort of ... something. Is this friendship? Or the beginning of it? It’s crazy, but it sort of feels like one of those relationships you pick up from where you left off, but we don’t really have a history. We haven’t left off from anywhere except me being a pesky younger sister and him being my brother’s best friend. We’re more like acquaintances. But it feels like more than that now, somehow.
I pull my eyebrows inward. “You mean, like, recently, or since the last time I saw you?”
“When was the last time I saw you?”
“I think it was Kyle’s wedding.” Graham wasn’t in the wedding, which I remember thinking was weird since he’d been Kyle’s best friend for most of my life. I was still a senior in high school with a bright future ahead of me. One that got snuffed out only a month later.
“Yeah, so what have you been up to since then?”
“That’s a loaded question,” I say. But then I remember it’s not really. Haven’t I been doing the same thing over and over again for pretty much the past decade?
“Give me the short version.”
“You go first.”
“Okay,” he says, reaching up and scratching the side of his head. “I did premed at Northeastern, went to UVA for medical school, and did my residency at Mass General. Then I took a job back home.”
I knew some of this; Kyle would keep us updated on Graham’s whereabouts until they seemed to lose contact, which I think was during medical school.
“Why did you come back home?” I ask.
He takes in a breath, his focus shifting to something across the room before coming back to me. “I guess the short story is my mom.”
