Him by Carey Heywood (reading strategies book .txt) 📕

She glances back at me, her face hard. "Okay babe. Call me later." She blows him a kiss and sashays up her driveway, probably shaking her butt on purpose. I stay in the back, thinking it would be super weird to jump into the front seat now.

"Coming up front?"

"Are you sure it's okay?" I watch Jessica's front door close.

"Don’t' be a dork, get up here," he says patting the passenger seat.

I groan before unbuckling my belt and bolting around the car to the front. Will is laughing at me as I practically dive into the front seat and buckle my belt. "Alright, let's go."

"You're crazy, you know that right?" He's shaking his head. "Possibly certifiable." He pronounces the t like tea.

I shrug. I don’t know why, but I feel weird about her seeing me in the front seat. It's like I stole her spot. Does not help that the seat is still warm. I'm skeeved out. Will doesn’t say anything as we drive to my house, just changes the station back to his favorite.

He starts to turn the music up but stops and looks at me. "How's your head?"

I inhale and spin my ring. "I kinda lied about my head hurting."

I look up at him, and he's grinning. "That's cool, I lied about my mom needing me."

I'm suspicious now. "And your cough?"

He laughs. What a liar, but I lied too so what does that say about me? I'm not surprised when Will gets out and follows me into my house once we get there. He practically lives here. My mom and dad are hanging out in the backyard with my Uncle Chip. Will and I wave at them as we go to camp out in the family room. Brian is already there watching the news. He's in college now and tries to act so grown up. He's three years older than me and goes to State. He thinks he wants to be a lawyer. All I know is, that is a lot more school than I'm interested in.

"Can we watch something interesting?" I grumble.

"This is interesting." He's dead serious.

Will and I just give him blank stares.

"Don’t you two even care that Social Security will probably be depleted by the time any of us need it?"

Will's mouth drops open, and I look at him "My room?"

He nods. We head back towards the kitchen since the stairs up to the bedrooms is on the other side of it. My Uncle Chip is in there and slips us each a beer. Will and I thank him before taking off to my room. He flops across my bed as I close the door behind us. My room is small, and it feels even smaller with Will in it. I sit at my desk, spinning the chair to face him as I open my beer.

"I'm going to call Jessica."

"Do you want some privacy?" I ask, getting up.

He smirks at me and shakes his head. "I'm breaking up with her."

I gasp. "I don’t want to be in the room while you do that."

"Why not? I thought you didn’t like her."

He's right. I should be all over this, but I just can't. Right now I feel bad for her, and even though she has totally done some pretty mean things to me in the past, it just doesn’t feel right.

"I just think you should have that conversation face to face. I think you would feel bad after the fact if you hurt her feelings."

He shakes his head, but I can tell he is thinking about what I said. "But her feelings are going to get hurt either way."

"I get that, but don’t you want to do what you can to make it not so bad?"

He sits up, opens his beer, and takes a deep swig before leaning back against my pillows. "I thought you didn’t like her."

I swivel my chair left and right. "I don’t like her, but I still think you should be nice to her." I will not admit how rotten those words feel coming out.

There were times I had dreamed about someone taking Jessica down a few pegs. I let Will think about what I've said while I drink my beer. He laughs when I burp.

I shrug, mumbling, "’Scuse me," before taking another swig. Beer always makes me burpy.

He finishes his beer and makes a basket with his can in my trash can. I jump up, almost dropping my beer. My trash can is right next to my desk, and metal.

"You suck." I walk over and hand him my beer. He finishes it for me as I sit on the other side of my bed. It follows his into the trash can with a bang.

"So are you still going to do it over the phone?"

He chews the side of his lip and shakes his head.

Chapter 5

Present

Will walks with me to baggage claim. It is almost poetic. He doesn’t have any checked luggage, only a small duffle-style carryon. As usual, I am the one with baggage both literal and figurative. As a frequent traveler, I normally don’t check luggage but given the length of this trip, it is necessary. I secretly have a thrill in being able to use the big rolling suitcase that came with my set for the first time. I love my suitcases. I travel so much I splurged on hard-shelled cherry red ones. We wait near the mouth of the belt. I sense myself wanting to lean into him. This is madness. I first off cannot believe he was on my flight and now the fact that we are standing here, together, right now. We quietly wait for the first bag to drop.

I see him check his watch. "I feel awful for keeping you. Why don’t you just go ahead? I can get a cab or figure out MARTA." There is no way I am riding the MARTA train, but maybe it will make Will