The Reckless Club by Beth Vrabel

Author:Beth Vrabel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Running Press
Published: 2018-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

12:01 p.m.

JASON “The Nobody”

“What are we supposed to do now?” Wes quietly says after Mr. Hardy leaves.

No one answers. One by one, they unpack their food. Jason’s lunch is in a brown paper bag. Peanut butter and jelly with no crusts, applesauce, chips in a plastic baggie, and a juice box. Mom always removes the crusts, even though crusts have never bothered him. He would’ve packed his own lunch, but there it was, waiting for him on the countertop that morning. He knew why: it was a consolation prize for the fight he and Dad had the night before. She always did this—some little gesture to make up for never standing up for him. A pack of charcoal pencils on his bed after school. A trip through the Starbucks drive-thru before church. An already packed lunch. He wondered if she knew how it always made him feel like a baby, needing a kiss over a boo-boo like he did when we was a toddler.

“What’s wrong?” Ally whispers.

Jason follows her gaze to his ribs and realizes he has been rubbing them while thinking about his parents. Dad had been hounding him to go out in the backyard and “throw the ball around” with him all night. Finally he had given in. His dad whooped and slapped him on the back like it’d be the greatest time ever. Like maybe this time Jason could actually catch the football instead of having it slip through his hands like it was buttered. “Alter your stance,” Dad had called then demonstrated, squatting a little with his hands out. Jason had tossed the ball back, wincing along with Dad when it wobbled instead of sliced through the air.

“Like this,” Dad had said, arcing the ball back over his shoulder before throwing.

“Like this,” he had said a moment later when Jason missed the ball again.

Toss by toss, just like always, Dad’s enthusiasm had leaked away. Finally, just like always, he had called out, “Are you even trying?”

Jason had thrown the ball back too hard after that, and Dad had returned it even harder, pelting him in the ribs and finally ending the game. “Should’ve had your hands up,” he said as Jason held an icepack to the growing bruise.

“Nothing,” Jason says as Ally pulls out plastic container after plastic container from her bag. Almonds, carrots, cheese cubes, diced-up turkey, cucumber slices, a hard-boiled egg, and finally a Gatorade.

“What?” she says.

“You’re going to eat all of that?” asks Lilith. She has fruit snacks and a Diet Coke placed before her.

“You’re only going to eat that?” Ally responds. “That’s not even actual food.” She pushes the container of almonds to Lilith. “Eat something. I’d be a jerk too if I were hungry all the time.”

“I am not a jerk.” Lilith crunches down on an almond.

Ally shrugs.

Across from them, Wes unzips his lunchbox. On top of the sandwich baggie is a note. Even upside down, Jason can read it: Remember who you are. Xoxo, Mom.

What did that mean? Remember who

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.