Sway by Amy Matayo

Author:Amy Matayo [Matayo, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Amy Matayo
Published: 2014-09-14T21:00:00+00:00

18

Kate

“Stuck in the Moment”

—Justin Bieber

This was a bad idea. A really bad idea. We’ve been here an hour, and though I appreciate Caleb’s willingness to keep his word and see me through this project, right now I wish he would just brand himself a liar and be done with it. Put us both out of our misery.

Everything about this trip is different than last time.

I’ve already gone through the list of questions I quickly prepared in my head on the drive here—twice—and I’m out of things to talk about. Ben looks bored with me. Caleb looks like he’d rather be anywhere but here. And once I’m done talking, the silence in the room is deafening. I close my notebook and shove it inside my bag, taking in inordinate amount of time arranging it next to the novel I’ve been reading, making sure that both spines are pointed down, that the corners line up, that both sides are perpendicular to the pens that also need to be organized—

I sigh. Lucy is right, I am OCD in the worst possible way.

Dreading the next five minutes or however long Caleb decides we need to stick around, I sit up and try to appear calm. It isn’t easy, especially because I somehow feel like we’re in the awkward, post-break-up stage, and we were never even in a relationship. I hate this whole situation, and I’m angry at all of it because I see no way out. The only thing I know for sure is that I was happier than I’d ever been during the last week with Caleb; now all hope of repeating those moments is gone. Considering our differences, I doubt we can even be friends anymore, and the loss feels so palpable it hurts.

“What’s wrong with you guys?” Ben says, looking between the two of us. He might be eleven, but he’s observant.

I open my mouth to say something even though I have no idea what, but Caleb rescues the situation.

“There’s nothing wrong. We’re both just tired, I think.”

“Did you have a fight?” Ben asks. “Because you both look mad, especially you.” He nods in Caleb’s direction. “She keeps asking me the same questions over and over, and you haven’t even offered to play basketball once, and we always play basketball, even that one time when you had the flu.” He sets the basketball on his lap and rests his arm on top, looking up at Caleb with chocolate eyes. “You mad at her questions? Because they weren’t that bad, even if they were a little dumb. Maybe next time she could ask me something different, something better, and then we could play ball. You want to play ball today, Caleb?”

Ben’s little speech has given me whiplash because it covered so many topics. But the theme was the same in all of it: He gets one day a week one-on-one with Caleb, and I’ve just ruined it for him.

“We’re not fighting.” Caleb’s words are so forceful, even I almost believe them. “Something just came up that we can’t seem to agree on, so we’re both in kind of a bad mood right now.

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