The Last Best Story by Maggie Lehrman

Author:Maggie Lehrman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-08-07T07:00:00+00:00

SENIOR DUMPED

Grant got dumped on the second day of senior year.

Mer hovered outside of the Gazette room as staffers gathered around the conference table. Grant waved at her, but she didn’t head off for the dance team like she usually did, so he eventually had to go out and see what was the matter.

They had been dating for almost a year, but he hadn’t seen much of her over the summer. He’d had his job and she’d gone on one of those service trips where you pay an obscene amount of money to build a school in a developing country. He’d said something slightly disparaging about the trip before she’d left, and she’d gotten a hurt expression. “Are you saying those kids don’t deserve a new school? Because we’re paying money to come help?” He’d tried to explain that no, that wasn’t what he was saying, he was only suspicious of a trip like this because some kids sign up for them in order to put something nice on their college applications, and it often ended up harming the local communities more than helping them—voluntourism, it was called; he’d read an article about it on Medium—and she’d gotten even more offended. “That’s not why I’m doing it,” she’d said, and then the movie started and they didn’t have to talk anymore, which had been a huge relief.

She stood in front of him, her golden skin extra tanned because of her summer in the sun building the school, while he had gotten paler than ever and had had to increase his glasses prescription by a full point in each eye. (At least he’d grown another three inches. He could see over Mer’s head now if he wanted to.)

“We should break up,” Mer said. The only indication that she was apprehensive about this conversation was the way she was worrying a ring around her pinky.

“Um,” Grant said. His shoulders relaxed; he hadn’t been aware that they were tensed up. “Okay.”

Mer stopped turning the ring and tilted her head at him. “Okay?”

“Yeah. If that’s how you feel.”

She opened and closed her mouth. “Did you want to break up with me?”

He wouldn’t have said that he was unhappy with Mer, but he’d forgotten why he thought it was a good idea to have a girlfriend in the first place. Nick and Oliver seemed to get happier and happier the more time they spent together, but that hadn’t been the case with Grant and Mer. He found himself on an extremely even keel with Mer, somewhat happy and mostly comfortable from week to week, with occasional bouts of awkwardness like the argument over the service trip or the hiccup of doubt and confusion he’d felt after making out with Rose. And yet there was no reason to break up with her, so he hadn’t really considered it.

“Not really, I guess.”

Mer’s bottom lip quivered. “Were you—are you—do you love me, or what?”

“Why does that matter? You said you wanted to break up. So, fine.” Something occurred to Grant, and he considered Mer.

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