sent. “You need a new phone.”
“Tell me about it,” Josh grumbled as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket. “I’m only making $115.14 a week working for my dad at his auto parts store, and I have to pay for my own gas and insurance out of that.” He slumped in his chair and said sourly, “I’ll be thirty before I can afford a new phone. Heck, I can’t even afford hot chocolate.”
Kristen slid her cup to his side of the table. “You can have the rest of mine.” She couldn’t taste it anyway.
“I’m not taking your hot chocolate. I was just kidding about not being able to afford it. It’s the new phone I can’t afford.”
“Take it.” She got up. “I’ve got to get back to work.”
“I guess that means we should go,” Missy said, looking disappointed.
“You all can stay. I’m just unpacking boxes.”
Josh picked up the hot chocolate and looked around the room. “Where’s Ava?”
Kristen went to a row of boxes resting against a wall. “She’s at the post office trying to trace a shipment that never arrived.” She carried a box to a table near her friends, opened it, and began to unpack a number of small, vintage china plates. They were beautiful, all different sizes and colors.
Missy leaned forward. “I like those.”
“Me too. Ava wanted every teacup and saucer to be different, so she bought boxes of them from an antique store in New York City that was closing.”
Missy eyed the plates with envy. “That’s a neat idea. When I have my own apartment, I’m going to do the same thing.”
Josh rolled his eyes. “You and your imaginary apartment.”
“Kristen will be my roommate and she is not imaginary. We’re going to Appy State together and are going to join the same sorority. Aren’t we, Kristen?”
Kristen didn’t want to join a sorority, but she decided not to go Godzilla on Missy’s Tokyo. “Sure. Why not.”
“Ohhh!” Missy pointed to the plate Kristen had just unwrapped. “I love that one.”
The delicate eggshell-white saucer had an array of beautiful blue and purple flowers hand-painted along one edge. Mom will love these. I should show her—
A sweeping pain rippled through her. Oh God. How could I forget?
It wasn’t the first time, either. Just this morning, in a hurry to leave for school, she’d glanced through the open door of her mom’s bedroom and said, “See you later!” She’d done it out of habit, but no answering smile had met her. Instead, Kristen had found herself standing in the doorway, staring at an empty bed, her heart breaking all over again.
“Kristen?”
Both Missy and Josh were looking at her, their expressions a mixture of embarrassment and sympathy, neither of which she wanted.
She ducked her head and collected the plates she’d already unwrapped. “I need to take these to the kitchen.” Clutching the plates, she hurried from the room.
Once in the kitchen she let out her breath and set the plates on the stainless-steel counter, angry at her lack of control. It was so embarrassing to break down in front of her friends like that. It seemed weak and needy. “Life is so damn unfair!” For some reason, cursing out loud gave her a tiny release. Grateful even for that, she rinsed the plates and then looked for a dish towel. Seeing none, she went to the storage cabinet, pulled her keys from her pocket, and undid the lock.
As she tugged a new dish towel out of the package, she accidentally knocked over a tea canister that had been sitting behind it. “Oof.” She returned it to an upright position, absently noting that the label had been partially torn off, only the words TO INDUCE SLEEP still visible. That must be Erma Tingle’s messed-up tea. I wonder why Ava’s keeping it?
Shrugging, Kristen locked the door, returned her keys to her pocket, and went back to the sink. There, she soaked the dish towel in cold water, wrung it out, and held it over her burning eyelids. The coolness helped her eyes, but did nothing for her aching chest. She gritted her teeth, refusing to give in to the tears that threatened. Oh, Mom. I don’t know if I can do this. This is so much harder than we thought it would be.
In the months after Mom had gotten sick, she’d begun what she’d dubbed “Life After.” Life After was short for Life After Mom Is Gone. Just like everything she did, Mom had been overly enthusiastic, even making matching T-shirts with a logo