She smiled. “She is a handful. You are working with Daniel, right?”
“Yes. We’re baking today.”
“He’s a special boy, too. We are all very attached to him here. You will be good to him when you work with him, won’t you?”
“Of course,” I said. The way she said it made me think she thought I would hurt Daniel. Weird. I turned to Andre. “Um, should I go to the kitchen?”
He nodded. “Daniel is helping in the day care right now, but he’ll be there soon.”
I nodded and headed to the shelter’s kitchen, smiling awkwardly at the people I passed.
The kitchen was empty when I got there. This was my first time in it, though I’d seen it through the swinging door from the pantry the day before. It was a standard commercial kitchen—to me it looked like a bigger version of the one at the back of the ice cream shop where I’d worked for the summer. There were several high prep counters, a big stove, some ovens, and a bunch of metal shelves holding pots, pans, baking trays, and bowls. I sat on a stool at one of the high counters and opened my functions textbook.
I was halfway through the first section of my homework when my phone dinged. I checked the screen. It was Devin. Ugh. Why?
Devin:I wanted to talk to you after school—I couldn’t find you.
Me:I was busy.
Devin:What whispers said isn’t true.
Me:What are you talking about Devin?
Devin:I’m not only with Hana as retaliation for you posting that picture.
I exhaled. Was he trying to make me feel better? Because telling me that his relationship with my frenemy was actually genuine, and not just a ploy to retaliate, was not making me feel better.
Me:So?
Devin:So you don’t have to post more pictures of you and that guy.
Me:Devin I told you. I didn’t post that picture. And you don’t get to tell me what to do, anyway.
Devin:I thought we were going to try to be friends.
Me: Friends don’t tell each other what to do! And you keep going all jealous caveman on me, so clearly we can’t be friends.
Devin:I’m not jealous.
I sighed. Maybe I should take the nuclear option and block him, like I’d blocked LostAxis.
Me:We need a break, Devin. Maybe one day we can be friends again, but not now.
Devin:What does a break mean? We’re not going to talk anymore?
Me:Pretend you don’t know me. Until you figure out how to be normal with me.
Again, he didn’t text for a while. Had I pissed him off enough that he’d leave me alone? I didn’t know how I felt about that.
I wanted him to leave me alone, but at the same time, it felt shitty to say it. We’d been together for so long—I couldn’t imagine not having Devin in my life.
Devin:Okay.
That was it. No arguing, no promising he’d do better. None of it. I had kind of expected him to fight me on this, but maybe he was finally respecting me. I stared at my phone, blinking. And then, before I could second-guess myself, I blocked Devin from my phone.
“So, do you think bars and squares are cookies or cake?”
I turned quickly.
