“Dad thought you might be hungry,” she said, and held out a Tupperware to me.
“Oh, thanks.” I took the Tupperware from her hands, its warmth spreading through my fingertips. “Good leftovers?”
Greyson shook her head. “It’s pizza night, but Dad said you looked like you needed comfort food.”
I peeled back one corner of the lid. Inside was some sort of casserole topped with breadcrumbs.
“It’s good,” Greyson said. “It’s got like three fancy cheeses I can’t pronounce. He always makes it on report card day. Not as a reward or anything. I just hate report card day.”
“Today definitely feels like a report card day,” I said, tapping my fingers against the lid of the Tupperware, my heart full at the thought of Alex in his kitchen cooking for me, even after everything that had happened between us. “Will you tell him I said thanks?”
“Sure.” I expected her to sprint off toward her unit, but she only stood there, gnawing on the hoodie string again.
I set the Tupperware on the entryway table. “Do you want to come in? You can have some.”
Greyson shook her head, dropping her eyes to her shoes. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you when Kitty and Mia came to say goodbye.”
“You were just trying to be a good friend.”
“Yeah.” I thought she would go then, but she lingered at my door. “Have they called you yet?” she asked.
“No. You?”
She shook her head, and I could see the hurt on her face. Her only friends had up and left, refusing to tell her where they were.
“You’re sure you don’t want to come in?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” She let the hoodie string fall from her mouth and started speaking so fast that I had a hard time keeping up. “Speaking of being a good friend, Mia made me promise I wouldn’t tell anyone. But I don’t know, I think you should probably know about it. And Dad’s basically drilled into my head that we aren’t supposed to keep secrets, especially harmful ones, but please don’t tell her you heard it from me, because she’d kill me, and I don’t want her to hate me, even if we never see each other again.”
A secret? A harmful one? What secret could Mia possibly have? “Slow down, Greyson. Mia made you promise not to tell anyone what?”
Greyson scanned the walkway, one direction, then the other. I leaned forward in anticipation. What had Mia said to make Greyson act this paranoid?
“Greyson, what—”
“Mia said it’s her fault Samson’s dead.”
Greyson stuck the hoodie string back in her mouth, and I stared at her. “But Samson was hit by a car. Mia was home when it happened.”
“I know. That’s what Kitty and I said. But she said it was her fault because Samson asked her for a ride to his friend’s house, and she said no, and so he took his bike and... and...” She shook her head. “She hates herself.”
I gripped the doorframe, glad I’d set down the Tupperware. Moments from the summer flitted through my mind. Mia’s words from last night—I ruin everything.Her distaste for driving. The guilt I sometimes found on her face. That night on the patio—Aunt Jo. There’s something I didn’t say. Something about Samson.
Aunt Jo.Mia had never called me that, not even when she was a kid. It was always Jo this and Jo that. Was this what she’d been about to tell me? I’d suspected something was going on, and yet I hadn’t pushed. I’d been so closed off that Mia felt she couldn’t come to me. Instead, I’d spent all summer trying to distract her and Kitty. I hadn’t wanted to talk about Samson at all. And so they’d turned to someone who would listen—Greyson. How had I failed so miserably at being there when they needed me most?
“Jo?” Greyson said.
“Thank you for telling me.” I sighed, taking in Greyson before me, who’d been kind, and open, and loyal when I couldn’t be. “They’re lucky to have you as a friend.”
She dropped her eyes to her shoes again. “It’s awful, and I... I feel bad for how much I complained about moving. They must think I’m so annoying. It’s not like anyone’s died.”
“You’re allowed to be sad,” I said. “Mia and Kitty understand. They don’t think you’re annoying, and neither do I, and neither does your dad.”
Greyson’s lip trembled. She looked up at me, then jolted forward and wrapped me in a hug. “He really likes you,” she said. “I do too.”
I hugged her back, not knowing what to say. It was obvious I’d miss Alex, but I knew I’d miss Greyson just as much.
She pulled away from me and wiped at her eyes with the sleeve ofMia’s hoodie. “Dad’s probably wondering where I am,” she said with a sniff. “He’s going to think I got kidnapped by aliens or something. Well, he probably wouldn’t think that. But he might think I got kidnapped, so I better go home.”
