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"So does your mom like the coffee here just as much, or is this strictly Mr Sutton’s addiction?" I asked with a ently "My dad’s a music theory professor at the University of Omaha A doctor of music theory"
"Dr Sutton," I corrected in a soft voice "And mom?"
"My hly "So it’s just me, and my dad and my Uncle Matt"
"My dad died when I was a baby too," I announced and then iretted the casual procla but it ca, but definitely not re ether between his eyebrows like he was seriously thinking this conversation over Ugh "Your uncle lives with you?" I asked just to change the subject
"Yeah, he’s er brother He’s only ten years older than e" Ryder explained, the light returned to his face and I relaxed a little bit into the co conversation
"So your house is like a bachelor pad? Three guys living together? I can only iine what your laundry situation is like," I joked even though ht for our housekeeper though and since I didn’t even kno to turn the washing machine on I was inclined to follow at least that edict
"Hey, it’s not so bad My dad has all the chores divvied up Uncle Matt cleans the house, dad does the laundry and I do the cooking We rin widened and I couldn’t tell if he was joking or telling the truth about the division of work
"You do the cooking? Like on a regular basis?" I al Ryder could cook, not at all The knowledge did funny things to ether at the sa into warrill a peanut butter and jelly sandith the best of the for as left of rill?" So obviously he was joking
"Yesme you’ve never slathered your PB&J’s in butter and then fried the idea I wasn’t allowed to eat peanut butter ever, let alone slathered it in butter…
"Ivy, you haven’t seen Austin Powers, you’ve never had a fried PB&J… I’ to seriously worry about you What kind of life do you live anyway?"
"You don’t even want to know," Itruth out ofof food, this is the over cure?" Ryder eyed the crumbs on the plate, the only evidence left of my delicious breakfast
"Mry I’et? You act like such a desperate drunk usually," Ryder sounded unconvinced and skeptical of ed stint in rehab and for some absurd reason his cynical tone e ofhope in the darkest places of h, Ryder continued in what could have been considered an attack "But seriously, you never eat at lunch I thought you were one of those girls with an eating disorder or that thought you could impress boys by how little you consuirls that can eat entire meals"
"I don’t need you to tell irls," I rasped out in a defensive whisper, knowing I basically did have an eating disorder but not because I didn’t see ain It was my mother and her completely f-ed up view of reality "I love to eat" I said that part louder; confidence was easier with truth behind it
"So why not at school?" Ryder pressed "Are you trying to impress Chase? Because I promise you, he could care less what you eat for lunch"
"It has nothing to do with i irls? Kenna?" His voice dropped to a concerned whisper His gray eyes pinned me to my seat no matter how desperately I wanted to bolt from the café This conversation ard and intrusive and there was absolutely no way I could open up to hih suddenly, desperately… I wanted to For the first ti to sos were stupid and dangerous and yet there they were anyway
"Not Kenna," I forced myself to hold back the sarcastic bitterness that caht I would coirlfriend was this icon of everything I wanted to be in life Psht
Still it kind of bothered me how much it botheredfor me to open up to hih to appoint hi rehabilitation If you could even call the to Nix’s defense, singing his praise and bragging about his bedrooet down to business, to iven They were sponges that absorbed every last piece of infor to Nix Six months in intensive therapy was merely a tool to uncover every last one of ht back to the assembly line with all the other mindless Stepford robots
I had every reason to distrust Ryder’s concern and even linted with honesty; his rim line He cared He actually wanted to hear about my problems
What was even more, it seemed like he truly wanted to help
And I wanted to let hi, but Ryder was not one of those brain-washed wo back to Nix theaof firsts that was the first tiht that, felt that so was completely safe
A part of e and the hope that sprung up with it The other part offorelse infrom my mouth before I could stop them, "My mom is really strict about what I eat"