How to Be a Girl in the World by Caela Carter

Author:Caela Carter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

What My Mom Has Told Me About Emma’s Mom

SHE WAS TALL, WHICH IS WHY Emma is taller than the rest of the family.

She was black and Emma looked like her, which is why Emma doesn’t look like the rest of the family.

She loved Emma. She was a great mom.

Most of what Emma says about her is made up.

Chapter 15

THE NEXT DAY DAD IS A few minutes late to pick me up on the motorcycle, which means I’m standing outside waiting for him in just my school uniform—bare legs and arms and neck and wrists and ankles. I feel OK about it. I feel normal. Until Jeremy walks up to the front of the building.

“Lydia, my sweetheart,” he says. He holds his arms out like he wants a hug. As soon as he does, I feel the cylinder get hot against the skin on my hip bone. It’s almost like it’s telling me not to go near him.

I swing my backpack off my shoulder and lean over it as if I need to find a book so that he can’t come any closer. “Why aren’t you at work?” I ask.

“I got done early with the building on Lincoln Street,” Jeremy says with a shrug. “Your mom asked me to do some grocery shopping. She said she left a list on the kitchen counter.”

“Oh,” I say. I shift from one foot to the other. This is exactly what my mom likes about Jeremy. He participates. He does stuff. He’s reliable. I wish I could appreciate it but instead I’m almost panicking. On the one hand, I don’t want to be alone anywhere with Jeremy ever, especially not someplace small like an elevator. On the other hand, I have a spell protecting me and Emma is in our apartment all alone. “I’ll—I’ll go help you find it.”

Jeremy smiles so big it makes me itchy. “Well, OK, then!” he says, and his big shoulders shake as he laughs at nothing.

I put my backpack on the front of my body, even though that’s weird, and pretend to keep looking in it as we wait for the elevator. My spell must keep working because three other people get on the elevator with us and ride it all the way to the tenth floor. When we get inside our apartment Jeremy hangs up his backpack and stretches out his arms as if he’s not just grabbing the grocery list and leaving. Emma comes out of my room.

“Hi,” she says, sounding confused.

“Jeremy got done with work early so Mom asked him to go to the grocery store,” I say quickly. I walk over to the kitchen counter and find a list written on a pink Post-it.

“Oh,” Emma says back just as quickly. “I was just about to go help Ms. Kemp bake some cookies.”

“Cool,” I say. I force the word not to come out of me like a relieved sigh. Emma won’t have to be here alone when Jeremy comes back from the store.

“Found the list!” I say.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.