She laughed, and I laughed with her, and for a moment the heaviness lifted. But not all the way. Some things are too heavy to lift completely.
“Allie?” Timmy’s voice broke into our laughter. He was tugging at my sleeve, a drawing clutched in his other hand. “How do you spellfor Mommy?”
“F-O-R,” I said, grabbing a scrap of paper from my desk and writing it out for him in big, clear letters. “M-O-M-M-Y.”
He studied it carefully, then carried both papers back to his spot on the floor. I watched him copy the letters in the corner of his drawing, his tongue poking out again, brow furrowed in concentration. His handwriting was wobbly but legible. FOR MOMY, it said. Close enough.
“It’s a present,” he announced proudly, holding it up for inspection. A red door with a gold doorknob, carefully colored inside the lines. “For when she’s sad.”
“That’s really sweet, buddy. She’s going to love it.”
He beamed at me—that pure, uncomplicated joy that only little kids could pull off—then went back to his crayons, already starting another door.
“Okay,” Mindy said, and her voice had that forced-cheerful tone that meant she was deliberately changing the subject. “This got way too serious. We were supposed to be ranking boys by hotness and making fun of each other’s life choices, not contemplating mortality and vampire relationships.”
“You asked.”
“I know, and I have learned my lesson about asking real questions.” She swung her legs off the bed and stood, stretching. “New topic. Ice cream. I think there’s still some of that chocolate chip cookie dough in the freezer. The good kind that my mom hides behind the frozen vegetables.”
“Aunt Laura hides ice cream?”
“She hides everything good. I swear I should make a map.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me up. “Come on. Sugar therapy. Doctor’s orders.”
“You’re not a doctor.”
“I own a First Aid kit. Close enough.”
She was already heading for the door. “Timmy, you want to come? There might be popsicles.”
“Popsicles!” He scrambled up, scattering crayons everywhere, and grabbed Mindy’s hand.
I gathered up his drawings and stacked them on my desk. The one marked FOR MOMY in his careful handwriting went on top.
“Allie, come on!” Mindy called from the hallway. “That popsicle isn’t going to eat itself!”
Later that night,after ice cream and dinner and the chaos of trying to get everyone to agree on a movie, Jared walked me back to my room.
He hesitated at the door, which he never did. “Maybe I should just say goodnight.”
“Don’t you dare.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. “My mom walking in on us doesn’t change anything. We weren’t doing anything wrong.”
“I know. But she looked?—”
“Traumatized? Yeah. Welcome to my world.” I shut the door behind us and leaned against it. “She’ll get over it. And I’m not sleeping without you just because she got an eyeful.”
His mouth twitched. “An eyeful?”
“Shut up.” I crossed to the bed and climbed in, then patted the space beside me. “Mindy’s got a crush on Zane,” I said. “Did you notice?”
He laughed. “I did. Probably the rest of the class did, too.”
I sighed. “Maybe it’ll work out. I feel bad, you and me having each other. She needs someone, too.”
“She’ll find someone. Not sure Zane would be my choice.”
I twisted to get a better look at him. “You don’t like him?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know him. I just wonder how much they’ll mesh after she gets tired of looking at him.”
