there’ll be a lot of resistance on my part. I’ll just stand there quietly, listen to what he has to say, nod in all the right places, and then when he gets to the “Do you want to get back together?” part, obviously I’ll pretend to think about it for a few seconds because, you know, cool cucumber and everything, and then I’ll say something totally casual and uneager, like “Sure. I guess so.”
I place my phone in my schoolbag, pausing when I notice a stack of textbooks next to my bed.
Did I do homework last night? In the middle of my emotional breakdown?
I let out a gasp.
Do I do homework in my sleep?
That would be like the best superpower ever!
I grab the textbooks and the water-soaked pile of paper on top and stuff them into my bag. Then I hurry down the stairs.
So what if he used the same words as yesterday? That’s Tristan. There’s always some hidden poetic meaning in everything he does. Like song lyrics. You repeat the chorus several times throughout because it has the most significance. I think it’s romantic. The same words that drove us apart are now bringing us together again.
7:46 a.m.
When I enter the kitchen, I hear the bang of a cabinet door and see my mom glaring evilly at my father, who’s deeply absorbed in another Words With Friends game on his iPad.
They still haven’t made up? That must have been some fight.
Hadley looks up from her cereal and the book she’s reading the moment I walk in. “Did he call?”
Huh?
I don’t remember telling Hadley about the breakup last night. Actually, I distinctly remember not telling her. Why would she ask that? Did she hear me and Owen talking from her room? She was probably listening at the wall with a water glass held up to her ear, the little snoop.
“No,” I say dismissively, hoping my tone clearly conveys that I do not want to talk about this with her. Especially after she completely eavesdropped on my life.
I walk to the fridge and pull out the bread, popping two pieces into the toaster.
My dad glances at me over the top of his iPad, his face pulled in concentration. “I need a word that starts with T and has an X, an A, and preferably an N in it.”
My mom bangs another cabinet closed.
“What are you looking for?” my dad asks.
“Nothing!” she snaps. “I’m not looking for anything at all. Why would I possibly be looking for something I have no hope of ever finding? At least not under this roof!”
Slowly, I turn from the toaster and stare at my circus of a family. There’s something weirdly familiar about this conversation.
“Craydar,” Hadley says knowingly, interrupting my thoughts.
I glare at her. “What?”
“It’s when a guy can tell whether or not a woman is cray cray just by looking at her. Maybe you set off Tristan’s craydar and that’s why he hasn’t called.”
“No,” my dad says, shaking his head disappointedly at the screen. “I don’t have a Y or a C.”
I squint at Hadley. “You don’t know anything about anything. And stop looking at Urban Dictionary. Mom, I told you—”
CLANK!
My mom has just slammed a frying pan onto one of the burners.
I have to get out of here. This place is even more unbearable than yesterday.
I force my toast out of the toaster, slather it with peanut butter, and wrap it in a paper towel. “I gotta run,” I tell no one in particular.
“Ellie,” my dad says, stopping me as I’m halfway to the door.
Great. He’s going to ask me how softball tryouts went yesterday. I was really hoping to avoid this conversation until later. Much later. Like when I’m fifty.
“Yeah?” I reply unassumingly.
“Are you ready?”
I tilt my head, confused. “For what?”
Now he looks confused. “Softball tryouts.”
Wait, what?
Has he completely forgotten about the conversation we had right here in this very kitchen? I swear he plays that game way too much. It’s starting to affect his brain.
“Okay,” I say slowly.
“Making varsity your junior year would be huge. The state schools would definitely take notice of that.”
Now I know he’s lost it. Isn’t that exactly what he said to me yesterday? I glance around the kitchen to see if anyone else seems to have noticed that Dad is losing his marbles. I mean, I know forty-four is old, but I didn’t think it was that old. Hadley has gone back to her book and my mom is rummaging loudly through the fridge for something.
I make