Lucid by Adrienne Stoltz

Author:Adrienne Stoltz
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781101572085
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2012-10-02T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

sloane

I stare out at my tree with a smile. The wind tousles her spring leaves. The morning sun warms her thick bark. Crocuses and daffodils decorate the grass around her roots. She’s so lovely. Maybe we all look better in the spring. Maybe all the birds and bees going about doing their thing puts something in the air and that’s why James asked me to go on a date tonight. Maybe I need to not think so much about the why and just let myself be excited about it.

“I have a date,” I tell her through my window.

There’s a knock on my door and I wonder if whoever it is could’ve possibly heard me. My dad asks if he can come in. When I turned twelve, he started knocking before coming in even though I didn’t shut my door until I was almost fifteen. It’s not like I sleep in the nude or anything, but it’s sweet that he respects my privacy.

He sits on the edge of my bed and whispers in a very serious tone, “I want to give you a heads-up before you come downstairs. Your mom is going to ask you to go out to dinner tonight. I want you to say yes. And I want you to be grateful and excited to have the opportunity to make things right with your mother.”

It’s obvious this was his idea and he probably had to talk my mom into it, convincing her I wouldn’t chop her hand off yet again if she reached out one more time. I am both touched to have this chance with my mom and scared to turn James down.

Of course it’s tonight. My dad coaches Max’s soccer team and always takes them out for pizza. It’s my mom’s only free night each week. But what if I never get another chance with James? If I don’t go out with him tonight, will that give him enough pause to realize I’m not worth the trouble of pursuing? The truth is, though, if I turn my mom down, I won’t like me enough to want to date me, and I’ve got to live with me.

In homeroom I tell James about my command performance with my mom. He’s a little more understanding than I wish he’d be. In fact, he thinks it’s great that I’m going to get to hang with my mom. He clearly wasn’t as excited about the date as I was. But then he mentions that he misses his mom. He studies my face and asks, “Are you disappointed?”

“Very much so,” I tell him honestly.

“Me too. Want to do something on Friday?”

Friday! Big-league, actual date night. Wednesday is just like a school night hangout, but Friday is unquestionably a date. I’m high as a kite until we spill out into the crowded hall after homeroom. The sea of faces brings me back to reality. There’s very little you can get away with in Mystic without everyone knowing about it. A Friday date is not one of those things.

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