Where We Used to Roam by Jenn Bishop (sites to read books for free .TXT) 📕

to text with Mom and Dad and, okay, to play the occasional game. Delia’s so impressed with me, but it hasn’t been that hard.

“Maybe you should bombard him at his place. A little role reversal for once.”

“I don’t know where he lives.” It’s only as I say it out loud that it sounds weird. How well can you really know someone when you’ve never been to their house?

Even though I haven’t been in Becca’s room for more than a month, I could still draw every detail of it from memory.

“Probably on the other side of town, where all the other meth heads live.” Sadie eyes me, waiting for a reaction to the last bit. “You know his mom got busted for making meth, right? It was all over the news. Well, our news.”

Tyler’s mom is in prison for making drugs? She was helping people—people like my brother—get addicted? No, I think. No way. Sadie’s got this wrong.

“He didn’t mention that, huh? No, I guess he wouldn’t.”

Sadie leaves the room, flicking the light switch on her way out. I run my hands under the water, turning it up so it’s almost scalding. I want to wash it away, all of it. What she said can’t be true. That can’t be why his mom is in prison. It has to be some other student of Delia’s whose mom is in prison for that. Not Tyler.

Delia invites me to go to the rec center with her, but I pass, afraid if I go, I’ll miss Tyler. I hang around the house all day, not even taking the bike for a ride. Down in the den, I work on my Becca box. It doesn’t feel right to watch the next episodes of Gilmore Girls without Tyler, even though he’s seen them all before, so instead I queue up the Harry Potter movies to keep me company as I finish gluing in all the friendship quotes.

I’ve set it aside to dry when Sadie gets back from hanging out with friends and joins me on the sofa. “Still no Tyler?”

I shake my head. All afternoon I’ve been running over our conversations from yesterday. Did I say something that upset him? Is it because Austin’s about to come home and his mom is still in prison? Is that it?

I don’t know what it could be, but I hate the unsettled feeling I have now. I need the Ron to my Harry. The Lane to my Rory? Maybe the Sookie to my Lorelai. I think that comes closest.

By dinnertime Tyler still hasn’t shown up, and I figure it’s a lost cause for the day. But if he doesn’t show up tomorrow, I’m asking Delia to take me to his house. Maybe he got sick? In any case, I need to make sure he’s okay.

For once Chris is home in time for dinner. He’s off the entire next week. We’re out on the back patio, about to dig into some Thai takeout, when the doorbell rings. Delia starts to stand up, but I tell her, “I’ll get it,” hoping somehow it’s Tyler.

“Sure you don’t mind?”

“Mom, she practically lives here,” Sadie says.

She’s not wrong. It’s funny how this place feels like a second home.

I open the door, and there he is. My conjoined twin. Except he doesn’t look as put together as usual. Tyler’s purple shirt is rumpled, and he’s wearing a pair of Adidas shorts that don’t go with the rest of his outfit. “Sorry for not coming over like regular.”

“It’s okay,” I say. I hate that the first thought running through my head right now is the real reason his mom’s in prison. Even more, I hate that Tyler was right. I can’t forget it. But there’s so much more to Tyler than his mom.

“When I was about to head over this morning, my mom called.”

“Did you talk to her?”

When Tyler nods, I detect the faintest traces of puffiness around his eyes. “I haven’t in a while though. I just let Grams talk to her. Like if I don’t talk to her, it’s not real.”

I get that. Maybe Mom and Dad thought sending me to Wyoming would make it easier for me not to think about Austin, but that’s not true. It’s impossible to forget when you’re two thousand miles away and he’s the reason.

“Emma?” Delia calls out from the patio. “Everything okay?”

“Do you want to stay for dinner? We just got Thai.”

Tyler points at himself and raises his eyebrows. “You’re eating me for dinner?”

I stroke my chin. “I’m still trying to decide which version will be the tastiest. Ty green curry? Pad Ty? Come on,” I say, reaching out my hand.

His palm is sweaty from the bike ride over, but he holds on to me tight.

In the middle of dinner Chris makes an announcement. Something came up with one of his coworkers and now they need someone to take over their Yellowstone reservations. Would we be ready to go on such short notice—leaving this Saturday, two days from now?

“This is perfect!” Delia grins. “What do you think, girls?”

“Sounds good to me,” I say, though I wish we could take Tyler with us. (Are we really that conjoined?)

Sadie’s arms are crossed as she stares down at her dinner plate.

“Sades?” Delia asks.

“I had plans for this weekend.”

“I know it’s last-minute,” Chris says, “but everything’s booked solid for later this summer.”

“Can’t I just stay home? I’ve already been to Yellowstone a billion times.” Sadie spears a piece of tofu and swipes it through the massaman curry sauce.

“But summer school is done now. I thought you’d be excited for a chance to skip out of town. Besides, this is a chance for us to get away as a family—”

Sadie shifts back in her seat, her fork clinking on the plate. “Last I checked, she’s not in our family.”

Chris folds up his napkin. “Now, that’s enough.”

“Seriously? You expect me to rearrange my whole summer for this girl I haven’t seen since I was a toddler and it’s not fair. It’s