‘What’s up, Tommy?’ Then when I didn’t answer, he shook his head. ‘Nah, he’s not here.’
‘I know he isn’t.’ I had looked inside. ‘I mean have you seen him recently? Is he alive?’
Kevin laughed. ‘Yeah, man, he’s alive. What are you talking about?’
‘He called out of work and hasn’t answered my texts.’
Kevin stepped away from the other Murphy bros and lowered his voice. ‘Look, I don’t want to get into whatever y’all’s drama is.’
‘We don’t have drama. He just hasn’t been answering me when I text him.’
‘Yeah. That’s drama. He went skiing with Vic and his friends, man. If he’s not answering, maybe he’s busy. Or has shitty service. Or …’
Drama.
Vic. He went skiing with his boyfriend. After he kissed me. After he gave me an amazing gift and sold me on the one I gave him being someGift of the Magibullshit. My cheeks burned with embarrassment. Or frustration. Or both.
I nodded and headed back into the house, leaving Kevin and his friends. I made a beeline right to Ava and Morgan.
‘Can you stop ignoring me now?’ I asked Ava.
She tilted her head. ‘Are you going to lecture me again?’
‘Guys,’ Morgan said, her tone warning us not to say something we’d regret.
‘I wasn’t lecturing you.’
Ava’s eyes went wide. ‘You said I was throwing my life away.’
‘That’s not what this is abo—’
‘I know it isn’t,’ she snapped. She took a step closer to me. ‘It’s about me wanting to figure out whatIwant to do withmylife and my best friend not supporting me.’
‘I do support you. I always will, I just wanted you to think about it.’
‘You seriously think I would ever do anything without thinking about it? Without dissecting every possible avenue or misstep?’
‘But you never even mentioned anything until you got accepted.’
‘I said I’d thought about it. I didn’t say I needed your opinion or to talk it out with you. It’s my decision, one that I absolutelyhadbeen thinking of – and way before you thought I started thinking about it!’ Morgan tried to get our attention again, but Ava was already going, and she wasn’t stopping. Her eyes were glassy as she yelled at me. ‘What gets me is youknowthe amount of pressure I’m under at home. You knew how important my family thinks me going to school is. I just needed you on my side in this because no one else is. They pulled a full-blown intervention on me Christmas morning.’
‘What?’
‘My whole family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, my grandmother. All morning and half the afternoon spent bombarding me with what-ifs and cautionary tales of Black girls who don’t get a college degree. How I’m squandering everything my parents gave me and all the sacrifices my uncle made to take me in and make sure I had all the best opportunities.’
And now I understood everything. Of course they were worried. I was, too. And I got why she wanted me to be on her side. It was totally out of line for them to bring up her parents, but were they entirely wrong?
‘I’m sorry. I get it, you want to be sure of what you’re doing. But you can still go to schoo—’
‘Stop it, Tommy!’ she yelled. Tears streamed down her face, and this time everyone around us turned to look over. ‘You’re doing it again. Just stop. I don’t need you to solve anything. I don’t need you to tell me what I need to do.’
Morgan finally stepped between us. ‘Okay, I think that’s enough. We’re not going to solve any of this now, and I think we need to take a break.’
Morgan was right. We needed to step back from this because we were just arguing in circles. Ava wasn’t going to change her mind because of something I said. I knew she thought she was right. And, I don’t know, maybe she was. She was smarter than me, after all. But I still didn’t understand how giving everything up would make her happy. Ava loved learning new things and taking on new challenges. It was why, when she got a new video game, she’d play it nonstop for almost twenty-four hours to figure it out. It was how she’d realized all the bioengineering stuff fascinated her. I couldn’t see how she was going to be happy this way.
So, instead of continuing to argue, I nodded and said, ‘Okay.’ Then I left, heading out the front door into the cold. Unfortunately for the person sitting in the middle of the front steps blocking me, the porch lights were off, and I walked right into them.
I tumbled headfirst over their shoulders. They let out an ‘Oof!’ and I heard their plastic cup tumble onto the stairs, spilling whatever drink they had. I grappled for the handrail to my right but couldn’t get it. There was just enough time for me to think,Myskull is going to crack like an egg on this pavement, before the person I’d walked into scooped me up in their arms.
