The face that says they're already practicing saying goodbye.
Hours must go by, because I’m able to finish drawings of four different horses by the time the door opens again. My body goes stiff when I hear it creak.Please, don’t let it be my father. Please, don’t let us get in trouble.
It’s not. It’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. She has long dark hair that hangs halfway down her back, and she’s wearing a pale blue dress that matches her eyes. “What are you doing in here, sweetheart?” she asks the boy.
“How did you find me, Mom?”
She smiles, and it looks like she came out of a magazine. “I asked the cook, of course.”
She turns toward me. “And who’s this?”
“This is my friend,” the boy says, and my cheeks get hot again.
I’ve never really had a friend. Does he mean it?
“Nice to meet you.” The woman extends her delicate white gloves hand to me and I shake hers in mine. “You look very pretty in your dress. Don’t you think so, darling?”
The boy clears his throat, dropping his eyes to the carpet. “Yes. She’s very pretty.”
My heart skips a beat and my belly falls out through my toes.
“I’m sorry to break up the party,” the pretty woman says. “But we have to go. I have an early day on set tomorrow.”
The boy frowns, his lips twisting into a halfway scowl. “Do we have to?”
“Yes, I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m sure you’ll see your friend again soon.”
The boy turns to me. “I wish I could stay longer.”
“Me too,” I murmur.
The boy takes his mother’s hand and they walk away.
My good mood pops like a balloon. This is the best night I can remember in a long time…maybe ever. For once, I got to bewith someone who didn’t know I was sick. He didn’t treat me differently from anyone else, and he thought I was pretty and a good artist and he called me his friend.
If I’m extra good, maybe my father will be bring me to the next party and I’ll get to see him again.
Footsteps thud down the hall, and the boy is in the doorway again.
I scramble to my feet.
“Hey,” he says, sounding a little winded. “I didn’t say goodbye.”
My heart pounds in my chest, but for once, it doesn't scare me. For once, it doesn't feel like a warning.
It feels like this is how it's supposed to beat—like maybe my heart knows something I don't.
“Oh.” I try to hide my frown. “Goodbye.”
He strides toward me and extends his hand, pinky out. “Pinky swear you’ll come to the next party?” he asks.
I wish I could promise that, but I have so many appointments at the hospital, and I know my father doesn’t like to bring me to many of these if he can help it.
But I can’t disappoint the boy by telling him that. “Okay.”
Our pinkies link, and it feels like static electricity, but a thousand times stronger. My toes curl and my chest gets prickly.
“I promise I’ll try.”
