The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles

Author:Jeff Giles
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781619637528
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2016-12-21T16:00:00+00:00

In the Struggle Buggy after school, Val started up again.

“Okay, what were you high on in Spanish? You know that quiz counts, right?”

“Counts how?” said Zoe. “Counts toward what? My total life score? Esta quiz no es me importa para mi!”

“Yeah, see, even that was terrible Spanish,” said Val.

Zoe laughed.

“Sí, usted eres razón,” she said.

“Ugh, just stop,” said Val. “You’re mauling a beautiful language.”

They were crossing farmland on a long roller coaster of a road. The car shook and rattled. The windshield had a spiderweb crack—there was still a rock, about the size of a blueberry, wedged into the center—and the floorboard on the passenger side had rusted through so that, if you moved the rubber mat, you could actually see the ground fly by underneath.

By the time the Buggy sputtered up the driveway, Zoe had told Val as much as she could about X, though she substituted “aspiring musician” for “supernatural bounty hunter.” It was what she’d told Rufus when he’d shown up unannounced that day. And it seemed plausible, if nobody pressed too hard about why an aspiring musician was on a frozen lake in the middle of a blizzard—and how he’d fought off a murderer.

Zoe had never withheld anything from Val before. She told herself she wasn’t lying about anything significant. Where X was from and what he was didn’t matter as much as who he was—how he’d woken her whole life up and helped her set aside some of her pain. All this from a guy who had never been given anything ever.

She pulled up to the house, and turned off the ignition. The Buggy bucked and chortled even after she and Val slammed the doors and walked away.

Before they could make it up the steps, Rufus stepped outside. He looked weirdly serious. Was something wrong with Jonah? Zoe had to fight an impulse to push past Rufus and run into the house.

“Just wanted to give you a heads-up,” Rufus said. “Oh, hey, Val, what’s shakin’?”

“Hey,” said Val.

“Talk, Rufus,” said Zoe. “You’re scaring me.”

“No, no, no, it’s all good, it’s all good,” he said. “I mean, it’s mostly good. I mean, honestly, it’s not great. The little guy’s just super-super-bummed. Like in shock, almost. I couldn’t get him out of the house at all. Not even a step. He just froze up. He’s in real bad shape.”

Zoe groaned.

“He wouldn’t go outside after our dad died,” she said. “I’m not going through that again. I’ll give him some tough love.”

“Actually,” said Rufus, “I think that might just make things worse.”

Zoe ignored him. She liked Rufus, but didn’t need him telling her what was best for her own brother.

“It’s okay, I can fix this,” she said. “Jonah just got really tight with that guy X I introduced you to.”

Val couldn’t help but interrupt: “Rufus got to meet X, but I didn’t? What kind of hot garbage is that?”

“The musician dude?” said Rufus. “Supercool guy. Epic hair. And I don’t blame him for not wanting to talk about his musical inspirations, or whatever.

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.