Rot by Candace Wondrak

Author:Candace Wondrak [Wondrak, Candace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

My mother wasn’t eating much of the dinner Aunt Maggie had made Sunday night. She was basically moving around the food on her plate, like she was five years old or something. Pretending to eat but not really getting anything down.

I didn’t care if my mother starved herself. I was too busy watching Elias from across the table. Aunt Maggie had forbidden phones at the dinner table, which meant we did a lot of staring at each other, even when there wasn’t a conversation being had.

It was as I’d suspected. After our night of, well, coming together as one, Elias had once again shut himself off from me. From his mother, too. He said not a single word, though he did occasionally glare at everyone every now and then. He scarfed down his food faster than you could blink, and then he excused himself. He put his plate on the counter and then headed upstairs.

I watched him go, and because I watched him go, I caught the over the shoulder look he threw at me as he left the kitchen. He was out of sight moments after that. He still acted as if he hated me for being here, like he resented my mother’s and my presence in his life.

Well, if he thought I’d trip over myself just to get close to him again… he didn’t know me very well. No, I’d gotten us that intimate by egging him on, so that’s what I’d continue to do. He wanted me to stop seeing Jordan? I wouldn’t. In fact, I’d texted Jordan a lot today.

Did it matter if I was using him? No. I didn’t care.

Aunt Maggie let out a sigh once Elias was no longer in earshot. Her dirty blond hair was up in a clip, stray wisps sticking out every which way. “I thought he’d get used to you two being here, but it seems like he’s just as standoffish as ever. I really don’t know what to do with him.”

My mother didn’t even glance at her sister, which left me to hold up the conversation instead, “I don’t mind. It’s okay.” All right. So, I wasn’t great at holding up a conversation. Sue me.

“No, it’s really not,” Aunt Maggie spoke with a single shake of her head. “But I don’t know how to bring him out of it. It’s like he’s been in a mood ever since his father died. I mean, I get it, of course I do. I lost the love of my life that day, but we’re still here.” The more she talked, her eyes grew misty. “We have to keep living, make Dave proud.”

“He wasn’t like this at all before Uncle Dave died?” I asked, hedging for more information about my hot-and-cold cousin.

Aunt Maggie set her fork down. “He… he had his moments, but none of those moments lasted this long.” The pause in that sentence led me to think there was more to this, more she wasn’t saying. Maybe more she couldn’t say.

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