Our Little World by Karen Winn

Author:Karen Winn [Winn, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

About a week after Audrina had been hospitalized, Diane and Courtney returned from camp and took me for ice cream. Just like the previous summer, I found myself a source of interest. We rode our bikes to the store, which I’d never done before—I’d only ridden to the park. Diane and Courtney were used to independently riding their bikes around town. But I didn’t need to ask permission; there was no one around to ask. Father was at work.

We sat at the counter on the red swivel stools, me in the middle. They seemed much older, or at least much more experienced, than the summer before.

“My cousin has diabetes,” Diane informed me, her mouth full of vanilla ice cream and hot fudge, after relaying how she and Courtney, who’d bunked together at camp, had played a game called Spin the Bottle one night and kissed two and three boys, respectively. “Diabetes sucks.”

I nodded, as I wondered how Spin the Bottle worked and who I could ask without looking stupid. Maybe Leah would know, and if not, maybe we could find out in one of her mother’s magazines.

“I don’t know anyone who has diabetes,” Courtney admitted, a bit wistfully, as if she wished she did.

“How is Audrina doing?” Diane asked.

“Much better,” I said, although I really had no idea. My parents hadn’t said anything either way, and I was still afraid to ask. My sister and I had spoken just once on the phone, briefly. Our conversation had been flat, as if we were strangers. I hadn’t known what to ask her other than how she was doing, and she hadn’t inquired about my life, which, I suppose, wasn’t out of the ordinary. She also hadn’t brought up what I’d said to her the night she’d gone to the hospital; perhaps she was waiting to do it in person.

“Well, tell her hi,” Courtney chimed in, as she took another spoonful of her small, plain vanilla ice cream. It was the ice cream that Mother would have wanted me to get, but I was deep into my strawberry banana split. I’d wanted sprinkles, too, but when the boy behind the counter asked, “Rainbow or chocolate?” I was unable to answer, shaken by a sudden memory: Sally once calling sprinkles “freckles.”

“Okay, sure. I’ll tell her,” I replied, and twisted on my bar stool, a little to the right, a little to the left, and back again. I thought about asking my parents if I could visit, but then I dismissed that idea. What if Audrina said she didn’t want me there? Then my parents would learn about what had transpired between us. I dreaded disappointing them again.

“Courtney, you’re so boring.” Diane sighed, pointing to Courtney’s ice cream. “When are you going to drop this diet?”

“When I lose five pounds,” Courtney moaned, and then I glanced down and noticed how much smaller her thighs were than mine. I stood up for a moment and tugged down on my jean shorts before sliding back down, wondering if this was how all older girls talked.

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