Echo's Sister by Paul Mosier

Author:Paul Mosier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

9

MONDAY, I SIT at Milky’s Malts after school. It’s an old-fashioned diner a couple of blocks from the Village Arts Academy.

I’m here to meet Octavius, who told me in class he has some big surprise for me. I’m both excited and terrified. I don’t really know what sort of outcome I want from meeting him here, and I’m afraid to wonder about it.

I’ve ordered my malt already, strawberry with whipped cream and a cherry on top, and paid for it at the counter. I didn’t want to wait for him to offer to pay, especially if it meant I would wait and then it didn’t happen. So I’ve got who pays for my malt already figured out, and the server brings it just as he comes through the door.

“Hey!” he says. “Thanks for meeting me!”

“Sure thing.” I wipe my palms on my uniform skirt.

He slides into the booth across from me. “You already ordered?”

“Yeah. I hope you don’t mind.” I pull the cherry from the whipped cream and bite it from the stem. It tastes amazing. It’s the first thing I’ve been able to taste in forever. “I was hungry.”

“Ah, I was gonna buy.”

I smile, but not too much, and shrug. “Next time.”

He nods. “So, I’ve got something for you.”

“Really?” This time it’s very hard not to grin.

“Yeah. I hope you don’t think it’s creepy.” He stands his book bag up on the seat next to him and reaches for its zipper.

“I, too, am hoping I don’t think it’s creepy.” Nice and witty, I tell myself.

“Okay. Okay. Here it is.” He opens the bag with dramatic flair, reaches inside, and pulls out—a hat.

It’s a red baseball hat that says Team Echo in gold stitching. He looks pleased with himself as he hands it to me, then reaches in the bag for another, which he pulls on his head.

“What do you think?” He looks at me, eyebrows raised with hope.

Disappointment washes over me, drowns me. I stare at the hat, unseeing. I don’t want to look up at him because I don’t want him to see my eyes.

“Hold on.” I leave the table and hurry down the aisle to the bathroom, then rush inside and bolt the door.

I look at the hat in my hands. It’s the stupidest, ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. There’s no way I’m even trying it on. I look at my face in the mirror. I hate myself at this moment, for being such an idiot I’d think he’d get something for me that was really for me. But I hate him even more. First the “Echo’s Fight Song” mix, and now this. He just wants to cozy up to the celebrity sick kid, like everyone else. I was a fool not to see he’s only interested in Echo.

I splash water on my face, then dry it with toilet paper because they’re out of paper towels. I storm from the bathroom and down the aisle and drop into the booth across from him. I hold up the hat and shake it at him.

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