Page 12 (1/2)

I hadn’t seen Conrad since Christmas He was supposed to fly back for my mother’s fiftieth birthday party, but he bailed at the lasthis head He’d looked at

My mother and Conrad had a special relationship, always had They got each other on some level I didn’t understand After Susannah died, they becarieved for her in the same way—

alone My mom and Conrad spoke on the phone often, about what I didn’t know So when he didn’t coh she didn’t say so I wanted to tell her, Love hi in return Conrad isn’t someone who can be counted on

He did send a nice bouquet of red zinnias, though

“My favorite,” she’d said, bea

What would he say e told hiuess When it ca

I worried, too, about what my mother would say

Jeremiah wasn’t worried, but he so rarely was He said,

“Once they knoe’re serious, they’ll have to get on board, because they won’t be able to stop us We’re adults now”

We alking back fro hall Jeremiah dropped my hand, jumped onto a bench, threw his head back, and yelled, “Hey, everybody! Belly Conklin is gonna

“Get down fro my face with my hoodie

He jumped back down and ran around the bench once, his arms up and out like an airplane He zoomed back over to me and lifted ed

I rolled my eyes and movedround

I was too This was the Jere I knew This was the boy fro to be each other’s forever, it es over the past few years, he was still the sairl Now nobody could take that away fro the next day to move me out of the dorms I knew I had to talk to Taylor and Anika before I went hoether, but I knew that Taylor would be hurt if I lumped her, my oldest friend, with Anika, who I had known for less than a year I had to tell Taylor first I owed her that ether was one thing, but gettingelse entirely Unlike et ht

I called and asked her to meet me at the Drip House, the coffee shop everyone studied at I told her I had news She tried to get it out of , “It’s the kind of news you have to tell in person”

Taylor was already seated with her nonfat iced latte when I got there She had on her Ray-Bans, and she was texting She put down her phone when she saw me

I sat down across fro off her sunglasses, she said, “You’re looking much better today”

“Thanks, Tay I feel a lot better”

“So what’s up? She scrutinized ether? Or did you break up for real?”

I held up my left hand with a flourish She looked at it, confused Then her eyes focused onkidding ed?!” she screamed A couple of people turned around and looked at us, annoyed I shrank down in!”

I could tell she thought it was too small, but I didn’t care

“Oh