“Okay, maybe I did.”
“Maybe you should do something like that after high school. I bet you’d be good at it, and I think you’d like it.”
I haven’t thought of what I’ll do after high school. I’ve been so focused on what my life was missing that it’s been impossible to look that far ahead.
The server comes back carrying a round tray filled with all of the food Myles ordered. She sets his coffee down first, then the pancake platter, which is enormous. There’s a tall stack of pancakes on one side of the plate with hash brownsand bacon on the other. She sets the extra plate of eggs and hash browns in the middle of the table.
“Just let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you,” she says.
“Thank you,” Myles replies. He picks up his fork and sighs, staring at the food. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to eat all of this.”
I clutch my side, trying to stop my stomach from going ballistic over the buffet in front of me. “I thought you didn’t like eggs.”
“I figured I’d try them again.” He takes one small bite and cringes, immediately taking a sip of his coffee. “Yeah, I can’t eat that. Do you want it? I don’t want it to go to waste.”
I know what he’s doing. He ordered this to share with me because he knew I was hungry. Maybe he didn’t want to embarrass me by pointing it out, or maybe he thought I’d say no if he offered to pay. Either way, the boy I used to know is still in there somewhere.
“I mean, if you aren’t going to eat it,” I say.
He sets the plate in front of me. “Take some hash browns too,” he says, putting them on my plate. “Do you want bacon?”
He sets a piece of the bacon on my plate before I can answer.
He isn’t a killer. He can’t be. I know what I saw, but it doesn’t add up.
I stare at him. His brushed-back curls. The way his jaw is sharper than before. His eyes that aren’t hidden behind his glasses anymore. He’s different.
And yet, even though I saw what he did to Mallory, I don’t feel scared being next to him. I genuinely believe I’m safe. If he was going to hurt me, he would’ve done italready. He would’ve hit me back when I attacked him at school.
He didn’t.
Maybe I’m from an alternate timeline where he’s evil, because the version of him in front of me is going out of his way to be kind.
He hasn’t done anything wrong yet, so is it really fair to hold what I saw against him? Then again, I saw him steal the paper from Mrs. Humphrey’s room. My Myles would never have done that.
I know I’m only going to drive myself up a wall thinking about it, so before I can talk myself out of it, I ask him, “Why did you steal those test answers for Mallory?”
He chokes, hitting his chest with a closed fist. Then he takes another drink to clear his throat.
“Sorry,” I say. “That kind of came out of nowhere.”
“No, it’s fine.” He sets his cup down and clears his throat again. “It’s a fair question.”
“It doesn’t seem like something you’d do. I still can’t believe Mallory is cheating.”
“She uh—” He scratches his head. “She knows my secret.”
“What secret?”
He breaks eye contact. “I’m playing baseball.”
What kind of secret is that? Everyone at the school knows he’s playing baseball. I’d be more shocked if he wasn’t playing. “So?”
His gaze dips and his voice lowers. “I signed my mom’s name on the consent form. She doesn’t know I’m playing this year. She actually told me I wasn’t allowed to.”
“You lied to your mom?” My eyes widen, mouth dropping open.
He nods. “She’ll kill me if she finds out.”
