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“How’d your case study thingy go?” Juliet asked.
I held the phone up to my ear with my shoulder as I downshifted and pulled into my parents’ neighborhood. “Good, I guess. How was Philosophy class?”
Juliet snorted. “Bubby asked about you.”
I rolled my eyes, driving past a dozen houses in disrepair before turning onto my parents’ street. “Did you tell Bubby to eat a dick?”
Juliet’s dry laugh made me smile. “I told him you were dating Zach now.”
My smile flipped upside down at the mention of his name. “Uh, I think you have to go on a date to be dating someone. Or at least fucking talk to them on the phone.” My tone was so bitter; I could almost taste the salt in my voice.
“BB, it’s only been—”
“Four days! I know; I know. Cool guys wait six days now. I get it.”
“Then why are you pouting? He’s totally into you, girl. He even said he tried to kiss you Wednesday night! What’s wrong with you?”
“I don’t know!” My shout filled the car. “Maybe I don’t want a cool guy anymore! Maybe I want a guy who will fucking call me just because he wants to fucking call me! Maybe I want a guy who’s more concerned with finding out how my day was than protecting his stupid fucking ego!”
I drove down a long, skinny driveway into the woods where our little square house sat, visualizing the smug smile on Juliet’s pretty face.
“Just say it,” I spat.
“Say what?” Juliet’s voice was unnaturally high-pitched.
“That I’m hung up on Ken and doomed to die alone.” I pulled into my parking space in the driveway and yanked up on the handle brake.
Juliet snorted. “You’re definitely hung up on Ken, but you are not doomed to die alone. There’s this guy in my Marketing class—”
A laugh sputtered out of me, followed by a stream of unexpected tears.
“Hey,” Juliet prodded, hearing my quiet sobs, “you okay? I’m sorry. I’ll lay off—”
“No, I’m fine.” I sniffled and wiped my nose on the back of my arm. “I just…I just love you.”
“Dawww. I just love you, too, bitch.”
As I tucked my phone back into my purse and slammed my dented driver’s side door, I realized that something felt off about my parents’ house. Everything looked exactly the same. My mom’s car was parked in front of the garage. The blinds were open, and the front door was shut. Birds sang, and ribbons of afternoon light streamed through the hundred-foot-tall pines. Yet my senses were on high-alert.
I shook off my paranoia, dismissing it as just a side effect of my overly emotional state, and let myself into the house.
My mom was leaning against the kitchen counter, sipping a celebratory it’s finally fucking Friday beer. She still had on her Peach State Elementary T-shirt, covered in paint spatter and dried bits of clay, and her long red hair was pulled back in a messy bun with a pencil shoved through it.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, the corner of her mouth pulling up on one side.
“Uh, I live here.” I plopped my bags down on the rickety kitchen island and plopped my bony ass down on a matching barstool.
My mom shook her head, trying to suppress a grin. “Not anymore you don’t.”
“Oh, really?” I smirked, flicking my eyes to her almost-full Corona. “How many of those have you had?”
“I’m serious,” she said, not looking the slightest bit serious. She pulled her lips between her teeth, ineffectively trying to squelch her giddiness about something. “Go see for yourself.” My mom cast her eyes up, in the direction of my bedroom.
“Okaaaay…” I left my bags on the table and walked backward out of the kitchen, not taking my eyes off my mom, who looked like she was about to erupt into hysterics at any moment.
She was the worst secret-keeper ever. She told me what she’d gotten me for Christmas every year, the end to every movie she’d ever seen, and what surprise she had planned for my birthday without fail. So, whatever was going on, the fact that she hadn’t blurted it out yet let me know that it was pretty fucking serious.
Once I got to the stairs, I turned and took them two at a time, rounded the bend at the top, and flew down the hall to my open bedroom door.
