Chapter 39
My mom headed upstairs, and we could hear her footsteps from time to time. I figured she was cleaning a room that was already perfectly tidy. Liam glanced up at the ceiling and then cleared his throat. “So, uh, it’s too bad about what happened with Drew,” he said cautiously.
“Yeah,” I replied, trying to keep my eyes on my algebra textbook. “She was a nice girl.”
“Totally.” He took a bite of his cookie and dusted his hands off on a napkin. “Did your sister say how it happened? How she fell?”
I glanced at him briefly, trying to figure out if his only purpose in being here was to find out more information about what happened with my sister. “Nope,” I replied. I double-checked that he got the same answer as me, saw that he didn’t, and tried to figure out where he’d gone wrong.
“I hear she got a job in Kansas City. That’s cool.”
“Yeah. Oh, I see. You forgot to divide by X,” I said, pointing to his paper. His fingertips brushed against mine as he began to erase.
“I heard the rest of her friends went back to school today. You seen Jack Cook?”
I raised my eyebrows and slowly shook my head. “Not for a while.”
Liam brushed the eraser shavings off of his paper. “I heard he’s not doing so hot. Like, he’s all grief stricken and paranoid and stuff.”
I stared at him for a moment. “I don’t know,” I finally said.
“Must be hard,” Liam continued, as he fixed the math problem, “to see someone you’re friends with plummet to their death. Poor guy.”
“Yeah.” There was nothing much else for me to say.
“I feel bad for your sister, too.”
Having Elliott’s power of suggestion would’ve been handy right now. “She’ll be fine.” I didn’t know what else to say. “There you go,” I said, seeing that he had the right answer now. “Let’s go to the next one.”
We continued to work on algebra for the next half-hour or so, not saying much about anything at all, and definitely not about anything except for math. Once Liam was all caught up, I said, “I guess that’s that.”
“Yeah,” he shrugged. “Do you think your mom would mind giving me a ride home, or should I call my dad?”
“She’ll give you a ride,” I said, sure that she would.
“Cool.”
I pushed my chair back, intending to hop up and go find my mom, when I felt Liam’s warm fingers wrap around mine where they lay on the table. “Thanks a lot for your help, Cass. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
I looked into his eyes and saw a crinkled smile there. “No problem.” I felt heat rising up my neck, and he quickly released my hand, but I suddenly knew why all those girls who met their favorite rock stars always gush, “I’ll never wash my hand again!” Even when I reached the living room and found my mother sitting in her chair folding towels, I could feel the warmth radiating from my fingers.
“Hi, honey,” my mom said, glancing up at me between folds. “All done?”
“Yep. All done.” I could tell my voice sounded overly enthusiastic because my mom raised her eyebrows and appeared to be holding back a laugh. “Could you give Liam a ride home?”
“Absolutely!” My mother’s energy level matched my own, even though I could tell she was teasing me. “I’ll just get my keys!”
“Okay, Mom.” I tried not to roll my eyes at her. I headed back toward the dining room, but Liam was standing just inside the doorway to the living room. “Are you ready?”
It seemed like a dumb question since he had his coat on and his backpack flung over his shoulder. “I am.” He smiled at me, though, like I hadn’t just asked him something stupid.
“I’ll just grab my phone and my coat.” I’d left my phone on the table and my coat was over the back of my chair. I hurried to the dining room and fumbled to get my arms in the sleeves. I had no idea why I was acting so weird. I slipped my phone into my pocket and hustled to catch up with my mom and Liam who were walking out the front door. I heard them laughing and hoped it wasn’t at me or that my mom hadn’t told him some lame joke.
We sat in the middle seat of the minivan again, and I climbed in first so I wouldn’t have to get out when we got to Liam’s house. He lived in a smallish-sized ranch house with his parents and older brother. I had heard his dad worked in one of the factories on the edge of town and his mom was a clerk at the grocery store. I didn’t ask questions about his family, though. For some reason, it seemed like prying, even though everyone in the world seemed to be asking about my family these days—well, about my sister anyway.
Liam pointed out the van window. “It’s this one,” and my mom pulled to a stop, pressing the button to open the sliding door. “Thanks again, Cass,” he said, turning to me and smiling as he unbuckled his seatbelt.
I was caught in his eyes again and could only manage, “Yup.”
He slid out of the car calling, “Thanks, Mrs. F!”
“Have a good evening, William!” my mother called. As soon as he was out, she pushed the button to close the door, and we waited to make sure he got inside safely. Even though it was only around 4:30, it was starting to get dark outside, and the wind was blowing. Once she saw Liam’s mom open the door, my mom shifted into drive.
I unhooked my seatbelt and carefully slid between the two seats up front so I was sitting in the passenger side. “Thanks,” my mom said. “I didn’t really want to be the chauffeur anymore.”
Giggling, I said, “Thanks for that, Mom.” Even from up there, I could smell the scent of Liam’s body spray wafting from the back seat.
“Sure, honey,” she replied, taking a left at the next corner. “I think William’s a pretty nice young man.”
“You can call him Liam, Mom. Everyone else does.”
“Well, I’ve always known him as William. Sometimes change is hard.” She took a deep breath and let it out, and I realized we weren’t talking about my friend anymore.
I cleared my throat. I wasn’t sure if I should ask the question burning in my mind or not but ultimately decided I may as well say something. “Have you heard from Cadence?”
My mom’s eyebrows arched as if I’d mentioned a taboo subject. “She’s doing well. All settled in. She’s doing her training.”
Nodding, I tried to decide if I dared to ask a follow up question before my mom changed the subject. I dared. “Where is she living?”
“They have apartments, dorms, something like that,” she replied. We were almost back to our house.
“And what kind of training does she have to do?”
My mom pressed a button to open our garage and aimed the van for the door. “I don’t know.” She sounded genuine, but I doubted she didn’t really know. “What they do is pretty secretive.”
I decided that was probably enough for now. “’Kay,” I muttered as the van pulled to a stop. “Maybe I’ll call her later.”
If my mom thought that was a bad idea, she didn’t let on. “Pork chops for dinner?” she asked, pulling her keys out of the ignition.
“Yum.”
