settle in beside me. It isn't the first time she’s done it, and I hope it won’t be the last. “He called last night.”
“Yeah? How is he? What did he say?” If I’m honest, besides the fact that he’s a staple in Mia’s life, I give very few shits about this Holden guy. I only pretend to care for her sake.
“He said he misses me.” Gross. “He’s never said that before.”
“Bet that was nice to hear, huh?” Vomit.
“It was. And then he belched into the phone, told me he had to take a dump, and hung up.”
I chuckle. “Stellar guy.”
“He really is.”
Aaaand I’m done talking about him.
But not talking means silence, and silence allows my thoughts to race, playing havoc with my heart until I can feel it beating wildly in my chest.
It’s not the first time the idea has come to me, but I’d kept it to myself, fearful of her response. I edge forward, trying to gain a reaction before I put it all out there. “Hey, when your grandpa comes to pick you up, can I meet him?’
Against my side, her body tenses. “Do you want to?”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.”
“You could have met him last year,” she says. “But you weren’t there.”
“Yeah…” I huff out a breath. “I’m not a fan of goodbyes. They kind of suck.”
She shuffles closer to me, and I hold her tighter. “I might have to start working summers from now on, so this year might be our final goodbye—at least in person, so yeah… that’s going to suck a heck of a lot.”
And… Go Time. “Unless you stay.”
She rears back, head tilted to look up at me, her brow dipped in confusion.
“Just hear me out, okay?” I pause, not really knowing what more I can add. “Stay.” It’s a single word—a plea.
“Leo, I can’t—”
“Stay,” I cut in. “You can go to high school here. I’ll be there. We’d be in the same grade. I could be your new Holden.” Puke. “And if I talk to my dad, I’m sure he’d let you stay in Lucy’s old room or something. She’ll be on campus.” I’m rambling, trying to voice all my reasons for her to stay before she can come back with one reason why she can’t. “And I’m sure there’s a bus or something that can take you back home to visit your grandpa, and it would make him somewhat happy, right? And this way… this way, we wouldn’t have to say goodbye.”
There.
I said it.
Everything that’s been on my mind is now laid out between us, and then I wait for her to counter or roll her eyes to let me know I’m stupid for even thinking it. I wait and I wait, and then finally, with tears in her eyes, she asks, her voice breaking, “You’d be my new Holden?”
I’d be more if she’d let me. I swallow my nerves and nod. “So?”
“So…” she says, releasing a pent-up breath. “Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Maybe,” she repeats, then looks away again. “Is that okay?”
My smile is stupid. “Well, a maybe isn’t a no, so that’s good. Because you know what they say about no. No is a complete sentence, which means that I couldn’t add to my convincing argument, and if you’d said no, then I’d be throwing myself off this ledge.”
Mia giggles, the single sound flipping my stomach. “You sure talk a lot for someone who doesn’t really say anything.”
I laugh. “That’s because you bring out a side of me that no one else does.”
Chapter Eleven
Mia
I promised my grandpa I’d try one semester of “normal” school and, if it didn’t work out, he promised me that I could come right home, no questions asked. But, since I wouldn’t be seeing him much during that time, I wanted to spend the rest of the summer with him, which meant saying goodbye to Leo—but only for a little while.
It was strange... how so many things could change in such little time.
Puberty, friendships, family.
Mr. Preston was on board with the plan, allowing me to stay in the basement, which had its own bathroom. He even mentioned that he was happy to have me.
My mom—on the other hand—was another story. For some reason, she assumed that me staying there would add to her responsibility of, you know, being my mother. I’d gone twelve years without her. I’d do just fine. When I told her that, she threatened to call my dad about my “insolence.”