Chapter 23
My mother ordered pizza for dinner. Yet another reason to suspect it was the end of times. I wanted to check the back yard to see if perhaps she had also purchased us a pet unicorn, that’s how rare it was that my mom would order pizza for dinner when it wasn’t anyone’s birthday. The only other time I remember her ordering anything in on a regular day was when my father had a fender bender on the way home from work, and they were both stressed out about calling insurance and whatever else you have to do when your car’s crunched.
We didn’t even eat at the table! We sat in front of the television and watched a movie. I had no idea we even owned TV trays. It was amazing, and it sort of made me wish my sister had transformed into some weird, super-fast creature earlier or more often.
If Cadence was struggling to keep things at a normal pace, no one noticed. She looked like her regular self, although I swear she was more muscular somehow. It was hard to tell since she was wearing a long sweater and jeans, but something about her arms looked more defined. Her skin had an even more glowing quality to it than usual. Not like Green Lantern glowing but like she was well-rested and had been getting her eight glasses of water in every day.
After the movie was over, I decided to go to my room. I hoped Cadence would follow because I had so many questions for her, but I didn’t think I should just invite her up, like she was there for a job interview, so I just said I was heading upstairs and smiled at her. A few minutes after I settled onto my bed with my laptop, I heard a soft knock. I turned down the Spotify station I’d been playing and turned my attention to the door.
She poked her head in. “Hey! Whatcha doin’?” My sister has one of those smiles that immediately makes you smile back, so I did.
Setting my laptop aside, but leaving it open so the music continued to play, I made room for her on my bed. It’s a full-sized, but we both like to lean against the wall and sort of have our regular spots. “Nothing.” That was true. I hadn’t even checked my email before she came in.
Cadence sat in her usual spot, grabbing one of my pillows and stuffing it behind her. “How are you?” I could see concern in her eyes, and while I appreciated it, I thought it a bit strange. It was her friend who had died, after all, not mine.
“I’m okay.” I gave her a small smile and then proceeded with caution. Gathering information without tipping my hand would be tricky. “How are you? This has gotta be hard on you.”
I could see sadness in my sister’s brown eyes, but she put on a brave face. “It has been,” she admitted. “But I’ll be okay.”
Nodding, I took another step down the road, hoping not to fall off of a cliff. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really.” Her answer came too quickly, and I wished I would’ve phrased my question differently. This may’ve been a missed opportunity.
I thought I’d try a different tactic and maybe circle back to what had happened that night with Drew at a later time. “How’s Grandma?”
“She’s good. She was sad she didn’t get to come down for Thanksgiving. I’m sorry I missed it, too. But she cooked for us.”
“Us?” I asked. “Did she have friends over?”
I saw the wheels turning in my sister’s head. I’m sure she’d meant just her and Grandma when she’d said “us,” but I wasn’t going to let an opportunity like that pass me up. My grandma allegedly knew Aaron, if not more of the strangers who had recently come into our lives, and I wanted to know if my sister would admit that.
“Oh, just… a few people. No one you’d know.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. I decided to feel her out. “I met Aaron.”
I saw her eyes enlarge slightly. “You did?”
“Yep.” I decided to keep Dr. Sanderson in my pocket for a moment. Would he have been there, at my grandma’s?
“That’s cool.” She looked uncomfortable. “How are your friends?”
So, clearly she did not want to talk about Mr. McReynolds. “They’re fine. Milo went to visit Jack today.”
“How is he?”
I assumed she meant Jack and not Milo, though it was hard to say for sure. In that case, there was no easy answer to the question. “Do you know that I saw him this morning?”
Cadence looked surprised. “Jack? No.”
“Dad took me over. I wanted to check on him. Daniel, Lucy’s brother, saw him the other day. He said he looked… different. So, I wanted to make sure he was okay. Milo went over after I did.” I waited to see if she’d ask me anything about Jack. I wanted to know what kind of concerns she might have.
“That was nice of you. I’m sure he’s just as upset about Drew’s death as I am.” It seemed hard for her to say those two words—Drew’s death. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to talk about a good friend that way. “Did he seem… okay?”
“He was not himself.”
Cadence puzzled over my choice of words, which had been intentional. “I’m sure he’s very upset.”
“Mom told me you’re not going back to school.”
Once again, her eyes lit up with surprise. She must not have realized Mom had told me anything. “I’ve decided to take a little break.” She nodded, trying to make her voice sound confident, but I could hear her wavering a bit.
“Why? I thought you liked college. Are you still going to be a teacher?”
Cadence ran her hands through her hair. “It’s hard to explain, Cass. I just felt like going back there right now wasn’t the right thing to do. I’m sure I’ll go back eventually.”
I had to accept that answer, for now anyway.
