How to Live Without You by Sarah Everett

Author:Sarah Everett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

On Saturday, I have exactly two plans for the day: figure out another picture clue — any picture clue — and get my hair done.

I’ve started coming up with possible endings to the sentence/directive Rose is trying to give me, and I say some of them out loud to myself as I drive to the center of West Riverwood.

“Go to 78 Orange Street, Miami, Florida,” I imagine the sentence will say.

“Go south.”

“Go north.”

“Go crazy.”

“Go . . . to Abu Dhabi and meet me.”

The sheer number of possibilities makes my fingers tingle, my heart pound.

There were a bunch of logistical reasons me and Rose’s world trip was scheduled for after my graduation: lack of money, our parents not letting me go while I was under eighteen, getting the time off school if it wasn’t in the summer.

But now I allow myself to wonder if Rose has somehow solved all those issues. What if she’s poured her magic dust over every hurdle and I can go and meet her wherever she is?

As I’m pulling up to the small house I haven’t been to since I was eleven, I am bursting with just how much I want to see my sister again. How much I want to hear her laugh.

The house belongs to Wendy, a Jamaican friend of Mom’s, who used to braid me and Rose’s hair.

I’m in the most restless mood, desperate to find Rose’s next clue, but I force myself to relax.

Wendy is chatting my ear off and putting my hair in faux locs when I get another text from Chris.

She really, really wants me to start a band and call it Caulipeppers.

I bite my lip to keep from smiling, and when the next text comes, I’m disappointed that it’s not from Chris.

But I sit up straighter when I see what Levi has texted me.

Figured out something from the Instagram.

What???? I text back.

Where are you? Can you meet me at Big Papa’s in half an hour? he texts.

As soon as I read it, I think, Of course!

The jukebox is in Big Papa’s. It’s been so long since I’ve been to any of these places that I can no longer recognize them from a picture, not like Rose or Levi can.

Me: Give me an hour.

I figure the extra thirty minutes will give me room, but actually, I end up having to text Levi twice to push back the time because: hair.

It’s eight thirty at night when I walk into Big Papa’s, an old-school diner on the west side. I came here only a couple of times growing up, with my parents and Rose, but when I walk in, I’m hit by a wave of nostalgia that is so heavy I have to stop. I remember Dad letting me get anything I wanted on the menu, because I aced a science test. Mom laughing and stealing Dad’s fries back when my parents still traded little bits of affection. Rose drinking a strawberry milkshake so fast she got a brain freeze.

Levi waves at me from a booth near the back of the diner and near the kitchen.

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.