Hidden Truths by Elly Swartz

Author:Elly Swartz [Swartz, Elly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2023-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

23

Couch of Awkwardness

Casey speeds ahead of me, passes Coach Levi, who’s just leaving Dani’s house, noses the open front door, and darts toward Dani.

“I missed you,” Dani says, leaning over the walker, trying to hug her dog with one arm.

Then she looks up at me and I notice that her eyes are red.

“You okay?” I ask.

“Yep, fine,” she says in a way that doesn’t sound fine. “Thanks for bringing Casey back.”

I shove my hands in my pockets, hoping to slow down my brain, but the words burst out of me anyway. “Did you see the report?”

This is it.

No more guilt.

No more feeling bad.

Just me and Dani, like before.

Dani shakes her head.

“Turns out I’m not as forgetful as I thought.” I bow. “The cause of the fire was not me,” I say triumphantly.

“Are you sure?” She asks like she can’t imagine the fire being caused by anything but me.

I nod and ignore the hurt rising from her doubt. “One hundred percent. It was in the report. None of this was my fault.”

“Well, if it wasn’t you, then what was it?”

I take a deep breath. I thought she’d be happier about it. “You’re not going to believe this. It was the remote-control car. You know, the one that looked like our mini camper. Something about the battery in it overheated and caused the fire.” I take a glazed donut from the table and sit on the ugly flowered couch.

Dani sighs.

Why isn’t she excited that we know what happened? Relieved it wasn’t me? Happy we can go back to the way things were?

“Weird. We never even used it.” She puts her left hand on the arm of the couch and slowly lowers herself.

“That’s the confusing part. But now that we know that none of this was my fault, Meadow can take back or fix or apologize for the stuff she said on your show.”

“Yeah,” Dani says. “Not sure Meadow’s the kind of person who says she’s sorry for a lot of things.”

“Oh.” I look away. “Well, then, you do it. Leo’s been a jerk, and what Meadow said has made things worse.” I put the second half of the donut in my mouth.

“Got it. Things are hard.” Dani’s voice is sharp.

I stare at my friend and realize she’s never been on the receiving end of mean. She doesn’t know how it scrapes your insides hollow and sticks to the layers of your skin.

“Look, I’m not trying to be a jerk. I know things are hard for you, obviously.” I take a breath. “I’m just tired of being picked on, and you were the one who said you’d have my back about the Leo stuff.” I pause. “You promised.”

“I do have your back. But you can’t possibly think being picked on by some brainless idiot is the same as what I’m dealing with?”

I fidget.

“Or the same as Coach walking in here a minute ago and telling me how happy he is that I’m recovering and excited for me to rejoin the team. And just when I think some grown-up finally understands me, he says he wants me back as the third-base coach.

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