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"Hoas the matinee?" I ask as alk down the hallway

"Did you talk to your nores my question

"Jeez Deflect much?"

"Did you talk to her? Please don't tell " He enters the kitchen and pulls two glasses out of the cabinet

"No Not the entire day We talked"

"And?"

"And…she has cancer," I reply frankly

He looks at me and scowls I rollainst the towel that's on my head I bend away from the bar and pull the towel off and flip ers to sles, I raise my head back up just as Will darts his eyes away fro in his hand with milk I pretend not to notice the spill and continue to

He pulls soets a spoon out of the drawer He'sme chocolate milk

"Will she be okay?" he asks

I sigh He's relentless

"No Probably not"

"But she's getting treato the entire day without thinking about it I've been comfortably numb since I woke up fro to wish he would leave again

"She's dying, Will Dying She'll probably be dead within the year,chemo to keep her comfortable While she dies 'Cause she'll be dead Because she's dying There Is that what you wanted to hear?"

His expression softens as he sets the rabs a handful of ice out of the refrigerator and drops it into my cup

"On the rocks," he says

He's good at deflecting, and even better at ignoring my snide remarks "Thanks," I say I drink my chocolate ht

The Avett Brothers are still struround when I finishon repeat I lie on the floor and stare up at the ceiling with

"Turn the lights off," I tell him "I just want to listen for a while"

He turns the lights off and I sense hilow from the sound waves on the stereo illuminate the walls as The Avett Brothers put on a color show

My thoughts drift with theends and loops around again, I tell him what's really on my mind

"She doesn’t want ive hi the hour that we lay in the floor He finds my hand in the dark and holds it He holds it; and I let hihts flick on and I i in the middle of the floor I sit up and see Will next to me, sound asleep

"Hey," Eddie whispers "I knocked, nobody answered" She walks through the front door and sits on the couch She watches Will as he snores, sprawled out in the living rooht," she says as she rolls her eyes "Told you he was a bore"

I laugh "What are you doing here?"

"Checking on you You haven’t answered your phone or texted me back at all today Your y? Doesn’t make sense"

"I don’t knohere my phone is"

We both stare at Will for areally loud The boys s didn’t go ith yourin the da

"No, we talked"

"And?"

I get up and stretch before I sit on the sofa beside her She’s already got her boots off I guess going so long without a pero I pullher

"Last week in the courtyard when you were telling me about your mom and what happened when you were nine-"

"What about it?"

"Well, I was grateful I was so grateful that nothing like that would ever happen to Kel I was grateful that he was able to live a normal nine-year-old life But now-it's like God has it out for us Why both of theh? It’s like death came and punched us square in the face"

Eddie turns her gaze away from Will and looks at me

"It wasn’t death that punched you, Layken It was life Life happens Shit happens And it happens a lot To a lot of people"

I don’t even bother with the worst of the details I’m too embarrassed to ad her child

Will rustles in the floor

Eddie leans over and givesup, I better get outta here I just wanted to check on you Oh, and go find your phone," she says as she walks toward the door

I watch her as she leaves She’s in a rooy is infectious I turn back around to see Will sitting up in the floor He’s looking at ivehere?"

He can be really inti," Ideal, maybe he won’t either

"Da deal