I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi

Author:Farah Naz Rishi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperTeen
Published: 2019-10-21T23:00:00+00:00

18

Jesse

Fresh, crisp night air flooded Jesse’s lungs. Main Street was empty; the Military Institute students were gone, and Jesse could hear nothing but the scrape of an empty Takis bag against asphalt and the rustle of dust in the breeze. Corbin was quiet, too. He’d been quiet since Jesse’s little outburst in Alien Zone.

But when they rounded the corner toward Third, Jesse saw a figure sitting in the tiny park on the single bench. His breath nearly left him again. Even though the streetlight was out, Jesse recognized Ms. K instantly: tiny and tight-shouldered, wearing her usual crescent moon necklace and her harem pants she playfully called her “swagpants.” Long, wavy hair thrown into an unruly bun, the way she did only when she’d been in a hurry. She was using a large cardboard box labeled towels as a footrest and her eyes were closed, like she’d been sitting there for a while.

And as though his recognition had summoned it, her eyes opened, and her attention landed on him in a sudden collision of awareness. For a moment, time seemed to stand still.

“Jesse?” She stood suddenly, her face mirroring the same expression of disbelief. “What on earth—ain’t it past your bedtime, kiddo?” She was wearing glasses; she must not have been sleeping well lately.

He scowled. “Don’t call me that.”

No matter how hard he willed it to calm down, Jesse’s heart thrummed wildly in his chest. Just what he needed. His counselor. Right in front of Corbin, of all people. Not that he was particularly ashamed that he went to counseling. But it was only natural that Corbin would start getting curious about why Jesse needed counseling in the first place—so much counseling that he and Ms. K were, sometimes irritatingly, close.

She was the one who’d given him the leather cuff, after all.

Ms. K clicked her tongue. “I’ll stop calling you ‘kiddo’ when you stop calling me Ms. K. My last name’s really not that hard to say.”

To be fair, he had tried, once, but she teased him over how he couldn’t nail the gutteral “kh” without sounding like a cat spitting a hairball. “I’ll consider it,” said Jesse, his lips curling at their edges, “when you stop stalking me.”

“Ha! You sure it’s not the other way around?” Her smile spread sluggishly across her face, barely meeting her dim, dark eyes. The past couple days must have taken a toll on her.

Are you okay? he wanted to ask. She’d looked a little tired the last time he’d seen her, a few days ago at the group counseling session. Now she looked drained. But she wouldn’t tell him; she never did. For someone so nosy, she was awfully good at deflecting anything personal: questions about where she was from, what her family was like. He’d long given up on asking. Maybe some things were better left unknown.

“So?” he asked instead. “What are you really doing out here?”

She stretched her arms above her and barely suppressed a yawn. Even in the dark, her crescent moon necklace glinted.

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