Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Author:Akemi Dawn Bowman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Elouise trades a triangle of toast for her car keys and curls her fingers in the air. “I’m going to work. Put the dishwasher on when you’re finished?”

Jamie flips his thumb in the air and keeps chewing. “Mm-hmm.”

His mom smiles at him, then me, and then she’s not smiling at all—she just looks sad. She hurries out the door.

I scrape my fork against the scrambled eggs. I made breakfast for everyone, but Elouise only ate half a slice of toast. Maybe she hates my cooking. Maybe she doesn’t think making breakfast makes up for intruding into their family home for two weeks. Maybe she doesn’t want me here.

“It’s too early for that,” Jamie grumbles across from me. The skin beneath his eyes is puffy from too much sleep, and he’s wearing a blue and gray plaid shirt and jeans that fit him way too good. It’s unfair—jeans shouldn’t fit anyone that good.

I frown, but I’ve already forgotten his comment. I’m still thinking about the jeans.

“You’re thinking,” he says seriously. “Or . . . analyzing. Nothing is going on right now, you got that? Everything is cool.” He opens up his eyes like he’s trying to hypnotize me into believing him.

Laughing, I shake my head. “You don’t even know what I was thinking about. It could’ve been something good.”

“It wasn’t. You had that look in your eyes. Like a startled deer, or someone who’s just been given bad news.”

I pull my hands away from the table and shove them into my lap. “I’m sorry. I’m worried your mom is mad I’m here.”

He sets his fork down. “She doesn’t mind you’re here. I told you that already.”

“I know you did.” I rub my lip with the back of my finger. “But she looks sad all the time. I feel like it’s because of me.”

“It’s not you.” Jamie shifts his jaw thoughtfully. “It’s my dad. They’re not getting along right now. It’s part of the reason I went to stay with my aunt and uncle again.” His eyes dart away and back again because his words have slipped through by mistake.

“Again?” I repeat.

Jamie has been back home before.

I never knew. Now I know it’s because he didn’t want me to.

“How many times have you been back to visit your aunt and uncle?”

He shifts forward and shakes his head. “A few, but it’s not what you think.”

Does he even know what I’m thinking? Do I even know what I’m thinking?

Jamie ran into me at a party by accident. If we hadn’t seen each other, I would never have known he was in town, and he would’ve never come to see me. We’re sitting here together because we bumped into each other and remembered we were friends.

Maybe he’s thinking he felt sorry for me. Maybe I’m thinking I don’t like what that means.

“I don’t want you to think I didn’t want to see you.” His eyes are like two shiny crystals. “It’s just . . . complicated.”

We watch each other like two people who used to know each other and now don’t know what to say.

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