Strange Creatures by Phoebe North

Author:Phoebe North
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Published: 2021-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

WHEN I WAKE UP, THE room’s hot with autumn late-morning sunlight through the curtains, and Annie’s gone. But I hear movement downstairs, the sound of dishes and water. I smell coffee, too. So I get up and pull on my dirty jeans, then my bra and my hoodie. I start toward the door, stop, find deodorant on Annie’s desk and smear some on to mask my smell, like sex and sweat, now hidden under baby-powder sweetness. Then I head downstairs.

I stand in the hallway for a minute, listening. Annie’s talking to her mom.

“Birthday breakfast,” her mom is saying. “What do you want, sweetie?”

“Not pancakes. They always make me feel kind of sick.”

“Bacon? Or is Miranda still vegetarian?”

“She is, but she’s not here.”

There’s a long pause, filled only with a clattering of dishes. I realize I’m holding my breath, waiting for Annie to say it.

“Oh,” her mom asks. “Did she decide not to stay last night?”

Annie takes her time in answering. It’s funny to hear her like this. She’s been so open with me. But things are different with her mom, I guess. At least when it comes to me.

So I decide it’s up to me to help her. I walk into the kitchen, my smile broad, like I belong there.

“Hi, Mrs. [Redacted].”

“Hello.” Annie’s mom is frowning, like she doesn’t quite understand, and why should she? But Annie’s grinning. I resist the urge to go to her and press a kiss to her cheek. It should be up to her, how much she shows to her mom. Up to her how much she reveals about herself.

“Mom, you remember Vidya,” Annie says. “Right?”

I put my hands on the center island, waiting for a response. Annie’s mom is chewing this over. In the late-morning light, I can see a thousand lines in her face. She’s older than I thought she was at the funeral, even more tired. And confused now, too.

“Jamie’s girlfriend?” she asks.

That’s the question that I knew was coming, and it’s like a punch in the gut. But I keep my smile steady. I’m not his girlfriend, not anymore.

And Annie agrees. “No,” she says, and she walks over to me and puts her hand over mine on the counter. “She’s mine.”

Annie’s mom is staring at us. The water is still running, but she finally goes and turns it off. With her hand on the cold water faucet, she looks at us. I can see how her brain is churning over this, putting the pieces together.

“Oh,” she says at first, flatly and without emotion. And then she adds, with dawning realization: “Oh.”

She turns back to the sink. There’s a window there, looking out to the yard, and the woods beyond. She’s distant when she speaks next.

“Vidya, do you eat bacon?”

Breakfast is the worst, like the most awkward possible, because no one is talking about the big stinking pile of shit in the middle of the table, as my dad might say, which is the fact that I dated James and now I’m dating Annie and that’s weird as hell.

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