Reclaim - Aly Martinez Page 0,31
been a phone number, but why was it in the container we used for worms?
“What is that?” I asked.
“Did you hear me? Fifty worms. The rest are mine. You may have hatched this plan, but I’ve been running it since you vanished without so much as a ‘see you later.’ So don’t you dare think you’re going to screw me over by turning in a week’s worth all in one day.” She pulled the baggie out and switched it to the other side as if that pocket might be bigger.
It wasn’t, but all her frenzied twisting and tucking allowed me to see one word written on the paper in big, black letters.
Camden.
As if the universe had finally decided to stop torturing me and throw a little luck my way, she dropped the baggie in the next blink.
I dove after it, not one clue what was inside. But without anything left to lose, I snatched it up.
“Hey!” she shouted. “Give that back.”
“Then tell me what it is.”
“None of your business!” She jumped, trying to grab it, but it was a wasted effort. I had her in height by at least six inches.
“Then why does it have my name on it?”
She started tugging on my arm, her whole front becoming flush with my side in the scramble. “Damn it, Cam. Give it back.”
The fact that she was freaking out only made me that much more curious.
The other facts that she was gorgeous and touching me didn’t exactly hurt, either.
Careful to keep it out of her reach, I opened it and pulled out a folded-up sheet of notebook paper. Using me for leverage and channeling her inner Michael Jordan, she almost ripped it out of my hands twice, but I was able to read it before she finally snatched it away.
Camden,
I don’t know what happened or what I did to make you leave without saying goodbye, but I’m sorry. Okay? If you’d just come back, I’ll fix it. I swear. If you get this and I’m not here, call me at Thea’s house or maybe just write a letter with your address so we can talk.
Nora
At the bottom was a phone number and a street address, both of which would have been really helpful over the last nine months. However, it was the pure desperation on that page that made my stomach sink.
“You didn’t do anything to make me leave. You know that, right?”
“Ugh,” she growled, tearing the note into a tiny pile of confetti at my feet.
“Nora,” I breathed, inching forward until I was hovering over her. “Look at me.”
She shook her head and continued shredding any proof that remained on the paper. “You shouldn’t have read that.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I should have read it nine months ago. And I swear to you, if I’d known you’d left it for me, I would have done just about anything to get it just so I’d have a way to contact you again.”
Suddenly, her hands landed on my chest, giving me a hard shove and sending me stumbling back. “Then why didn’t you?”
Through my confusion, I managed to stay on my feet. “What?”
She advanced on me, black makeup smeared beneath her eyes. “Why didn’t you figure out a way to contact me? Huh? You said you missed me, but you never even tried to reach out to me.”
“I didn’t know how.”
“Hitchhike!” she yelled so loudly it echoed off the trees. “Ask your grandparents to find my address. Hell, mail a letter to Mr. Leonard. I don’t know. Anything.”
I blinked. Damn, why hadn’t I thought about mailing Mr. Leonard a letter?
But she was wrong. I had tried.
After my family had gotten back to Alberton, I was grounded for a month. No phone. No TV. The only thing I was allowed to do was go to school, do my mile-long list of chores, and write a letter of apology to my cousin for cleaning his clock. I smiled through pretty much every word of that letter. However, when I finished the horseshit apology and my parents gave me a thumbs-up on draft four million and four, I put a little P.S. down at the bottom.
While I had no idea what Nora’s address was, I knew how to get to her house. Past the grocery store, through the woods, last brown house on the left. All I needed was a pair of legs in Clovert to take the route for me and send back a street name and number.
My cousin, Johnny, wasn’t exactly