you break this seat belt on purpose?”
“Best pickup line ever, right? I wish I had thought of it on my own. But no, I didn’t. It legitimately broke all by itself.”
“Right.” I slid over next to him and buckled up.
He draped his arm across the back of the seat, lifted one side of his mouth into a half smile, and met my eyes. “Hey.” His eyes were green. Like my brother’s.
I scowled, and he laughed and put both hands on the wheel.
“Sorry, I’ll behave. It was just a joke,” he said.
Of course it was.
“Where to?” he asked, starting the engine.
I told him where I lived, then reached for the radio.
“It doesn’t work.”
I gasped. “How can you drive without music?”
“Well, it might be an old-car thing, but my gas pedal isn’t connected to the radio at all.”
“Funny. It’s just, I wouldn’t be able to do that.”
“But to be fair, you don’t do anything without music.”
“Music is life.” It was to me at least. It filled me up, gave me words, helped me to feel or not to feel.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
It wasn’t until we were almost to my house that I remembered my brother’s truck up there on the platform like a trophy in our front yard. I knew the whole town knew the story behind it, but people still had this need to hear it from me. They wanted the details. And they’d ask in this soft, sad voice. I wasn’t ready to hear that voice from Jackson because it would sound even more fake than when other people did it.
A sharp pain shot through my right shoulder. I clutched at it, then pinched the muscle, hoping to soothe it faster.
“What’s the matter?”
“I just get shoulder cramps every once in a while.”
“From swimming?”
I gritted my teeth as a new wave of pain surged through my shoulder. “Yes.” And they seemed to be happening more frequently, which worried me.
“Is there anything I can—”
“No, I’m good.” And I was. A minute later my shoulder relaxed and so did I. Until I remembered the truck in my front yard as we pulled up to the house.
“Wow. Awesome truck,” Jackson said.
My brows shot down as I studied his happy, innocent expression.
“I see why you weren’t impressed with my classic. Your dad has restored a real one to perfection.” He turned off the engine and hopped out. Next thing I knew, he was walking around my brother’s truck, running his hand along the paint job like it was a rare gem.
“Can I sit in it?”
“No!”
“Your dad doesn’t let people touch it?”
Had he really never seen it before? We didn’t live on a busy street. If he had no need to come into this neighborhood, I could see why he might not have ever seen it. “Have you never heard . . . ?” Did this mean he didn’t know about my brother?
“What? Am I missing something? Did your dad win some big award for this or something? I’m always a step behind in this town.”
It took me two seconds to remember that he moved here his freshman year. I assumed people still talked about my family. About my brother. But maybe we were old news. It was kind of ironic that the one person in town who reminded my dad of my brother didn’t even know of Eric’s existence. The thought of someone not knowing about my brother made my breath catch in my throat. Did the thought thrill me or devastate me? I wasn’t sure.
“It’s complicated.”
He held up his hands. “Hey, I get it. If I had this truck, I wouldn’t want people touching it either.”
“Right. Well, thanks for the ride.”
“I told you we were going to be friends, Moore.”
I wanted to object, but I just smiled and headed for my house.
Fifteen
Bungee jumping? Your activities have quite a range.
I tapped my fingers lightly on the keyboard, waiting for a fast response from Heath Hall like I’d gotten the other night, but was left with lots of white screen waiting to be filled with message bubbles. He couldn’t be online all the time. I shouldn’t have gotten on the computer the second I walked in the door anyway. I should’ve called Amelia and yelled at her for ditching me.
So I did.
“What took you so long?” she responded.
“I started asking Ms. Lin about the best artists she taught.”
“For the Heath Hall thing again?”
“Yes.”
“And did you find out anything?”
“Nope. She acted like she had some legal contract to keep names secret. Kind of like all the people who know who