Echoes Between Us - McGarry, Katie Page 0,8
for the better. When it’s clear I’m pouting, Nazareth clasps hands with Leo. “Hey.”
“Not sure how long we’ll stay. Sutherland and his friends are on the way up.” Leo jacks his thumb in their direction then pulls his cell out of his pocket, no doubt texting Jesse to see if he’s started his ascent since the popular people may possibly ruin our plans for the evening.
My cell rings. The caller ID informs me it’s Glory, Jesse’s older cousin and town psychic. She’s been helping me avoid my fate, but I’m avoiding her so I reject the call.
“I started packing for school,” Leo says as he pockets his cell, and my stomach bottoms out. Soon, Leo will be two hours away, and while he promises we’ll hang out all the time, I don’t believe him. When Leo went to a three-week-long camp for his college this summer, I didn’t hear from him once. Typically when people leave this town for more than a month, they don’t return.
Instead of accepting the inevitable, I intervene by dropping the news onto Nazareth. “Sawyer Sutherland moved in with his mom and sister into the downstairs apartment.”
Nazareth isn’t much of a conversationalist. He isn’t much on showing emotions, either, yet his eyes widen. Nazareth has been my best friend for so long I can practically read his mind. One of the most popular guys at school is living in the house of the girl voted most bizarre in the latest Tillman High’s student Insta poll?
“I know, right?” I make a funny face of twisting my mouth and crossing my eyes. Nazareth’s lips turn up.
“Did you hear what happened to Sawyer’s arm?” Leo asks.
No. School gossip isn’t my thing. “I’m assuming the cast means he broke it.”
“On how he broke it. He told everyone he slipped on the pool deck at the YMCA.”
“So he’s suing the Y?”
“No, he lied to his mom and the doctor. He didn’t slip on the pool deck and his friends know he lied, but he won’t tell anyone how he broke it. Everyone’s covering for him, but they want to know what happened.”
That’s interesting, but nothing noteworthy. Sawyer Sutherland is known for playing it close to the edge in the search for a good time. In this instance, karma bit him in his cute butt. “Let’s return to the real subject at hand. This guy is now living in my house. Doesn’t that obligate us to talk? Before it wasn’t awkward. We were two people who share the letter S for our last names, but now ignoring each other will be weird.”
“Stay away from him, V,” Leo says. “Guys like him don’t know how to appreciate a girl like you.”
A girl like me. Translation—misfit. Leo made the mistake once of calling me a misfit. I didn’t talk to him for a week. Misfit suggests I don’t fit in anywhere. I do fit in. I just don’t fit in easily with other people, and that’s okay because I fit in fine with me.
Nazareth and I are kindred spirits in that way. Neither of us would ever change who we are in a fruitless quest for more friends. We’re content being ourselves.
Like me, Nazareth has his own style. He recently had his mother cut his long hair and buzz it on the sides. He now wears it in a spiked Mohawk. He’s a muscled guy, wears black thick-rimmed glasses that hide his dark green eyes, and he’s taller than me, but who isn’t? On his arms are a string of tattoos. Not common for a teen, but what’s more fascinating is that every single one of those tattoos was inked at home by his mother.
“You’re one of a kind, V,” Leo says. “You deserve better than to put yourself out there for the unoriginal, and that kid is as original as a blank sheet of paper. He won’t get you, and if you try to be friends with him, he’ll make your life a living hell by being nice to your face then talking crap about you behind your back. That’s how his group of friends work.”
There’s bitterness to his tone. Leo could fit in if he wanted. In fact, he used to fit in, but literally one day, out of nowhere in middle school he moved from a lunch table overflowing with people to sitting at the loner table across from me. My life changed then. For the better and I’m grateful.
The sound of pebbles bouncing along the floor of the empty sanatarium