Hello, Future Me by Kim Ventrella

Author:Kim Ventrella
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Mom didn’t come by that night. I tried not to let it get to me.

It helped that my brain was once again a heaping bowl of mush.

Calvin was a great distraction, as usual, and we spent most of the day building our own bigfoot statue out of beer cans and duct tape. Not planning or scheming or talking about what had happened. Dad helped, with the building and with emptying out more cans. Once we’d sweated all the liquid from our bodies and then some, we went inside and Dad made peanut butter, honey, and bacon sandwiches. I know how it sounds, but trust me, they’re amazing.

After that, we played Monopoly, which always made me laugh, since Dad always ran out of money in the first ten minutes, and then it was up to me and Calvin to fight it out for the win. Calvin’s mom came by to pick him up just after nine, and she and Dad spent a while talking outside on the front steps.

“Sorry about your plan,” Calvin said as he put the last of the game pieces back in the box. We’d lost the actual pieces forever ago, so we played with pennies and stray LEGOs.

“Yeah, me too.” It was the first time we’d talked about Operation Giant Failure all day. Suddenly, the ugliness of earlier came rushing back to me, and I was surprised I didn’t melt into a puddle of slime right there on the carpet.

“I guess now we’ll have this in common too,” he said, picking at his shoelaces. “Hey, about the Bigfoot Ball, and what I said last night …”

He trailed off, but I wasn’t really listening. He was so sure it was all over with Mom and Dad. True, things looked … well, awful at the moment. But that didn’t mean it was over. Just because his dad was a total jerk who never called didn’t mean my mom would turn out that way. My parents were nothing like his. Okay, so Gavin was a problem, but problems had solutions, right?

“I was thinking,” Calvin continued, now tugging on the end of one lace. “Since we usually go to the Bigfoot Ball anyway to help out, maybe this year we could—”

“It’s late.” I stood up, suddenly brimming with a renewed sense of determination. Along with total, mind-numbing exhaustion, but mostly determination. “I should probably go to bed.”

“Oh.” Calvin’s eye feelings were all over the place, but mainly he looked hurt. “But it’s only nine o’clock.”

“Yeah, but your mom’s here, and I guess I’m tired after Operation Giant Failure and everything.”

“Right.” He stood up, his long legs shaky after all that sitting.

“Sorry, I just can’t really focus on ball stuff right now.”

“Oh, okay. Forget I said anything.” He hurried out, leaving the door hanging open behind him.

Usually, I would have gone after him, but in that moment I was happy he was gone. Calvin didn’t understand. He couldn’t. His parents had gotten divorced, and he hadn’t done anything to stop it. Well, that wasn’t me.

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