Worth a Thousand Words by Brigit Young

Author:Brigit Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Published: 2018-08-14T07:00:00+00:00

13

That Face

Jake wasn’t at school the next morning, or the day after that.

The first day, he texted Tillie that he had stayed home to investigate, though Tillie imagined he mostly needed to recover from their awful night. The second day, he didn’t text at all. And Tillie started to worry.

Abby told Tillie he’d texted her that morning to tell her he was still sick. After stopping Tillie on her way to Ms. Martinez’s room and insisting that she eat lunch with “their group” instead, Abby told Tillie all kinds of things. She told her she’d had a crush on the eighth grader Malik Granger for two years, that it annoyed her that he was probably in love with Diana Farr just like everyone else, that she was looking to start a band and if Tillie played any instruments she should join, and all kinds of theories about the characters on a TV show Tillie had never watched but Abby insisted “she had to.” Abby didn’t even walk ahead of Tillie, she just strolled slowly alongside her, even as her words moved a million miles a minute.

“Jake was right,” Abby said as they walked into the cafeteria. “You’re a really good listener.”

It felt weird to sit at Jake’s table without him, but Abby acted like Tillie was entirely welcome. She talked to Tillie, but also to everyone else.

“Hey, if my band works out do you think you could take publicity shots for us or something?” Abby asked her at one point, initiating a whole discussion at the table of all the things people needed pictures for. Sean wanted a headshot for a community theater production he planned on auditioning for, and Emma wanted to make sure someone took a good photo of the girls’ basketball team for yearbook because the year before they’d all hated it.

Tillie, shocking herself, said yes to all of it. She relaxed into her spot at the table without Jake by her side.

Then, at one point, Abby put her hand to her mouth and said, “Oh, I totally forgot. I should be collecting Jake’s homework for the classes I have with him. He asked me to … Oops.”

Tillie felt guilty that for a moment, while chatting with Abby, she’d forgotten Jake. She’d forgotten his heaving breaths, and how he’d clenched his hands so tightly his knuckles turned white.

“Yeah, I hope he’s okay,” Tillie said, meaning something else entirely.

Tillie wished Jake would just talk to his mom. Was his mom still maintaining that his dad was on a business trip? How long did she expect that obvious lie to work? Tillie could imagine, though, that Jake had convinced her of his blissful ignorance. He was probably all smiles and jokes.

Tillie texted him. Hey, when can we discuss Monday night’s evidence?

She tried not to let it bother her that he’d texted Abby and not her.

By her next class, he hadn’t texted back. She saw Abby in the halls. Well, really, she put herself near Abby’s locker to make sure she’d run into her.

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.