“Here. Let me see.” She slides her glasses up her nose and takes a look at the instructions.
“Give me those,” I say, motioning to her glasses.
She does and I clean them off with the hem of my shirt. “I don’t know how you can see out of these things. They’re so gross.”
“Does this mean you’re not mad at me?” she asks.
“Oh, I’m still plenty mad. Your glasses were just making it worse.”
“I know you probably don’t want to talk about it,” she says quietly, “but not everyone at school had the same reaction as Patrick Thomas. In fact, a lot of people even thought it was pretty cool.”
“I can’t believe you shared that video to begin with. It was private!”
“I’m sorrrrrrry,” she says. “I was really proud of you, and it’s really nice to see you do something for yourself.”
For myself? So that I’ll have something to occupy my time with once she’s gone and maybe she won’t feel as guilty? “And how did Kyle even get it?” My words are venomous.
“Well.” She clears her throat. “That is sort of my fault. He kept asking me to send it so he could show Alex, and so I did. I really didn’t think he would share it so wide—”
“What were you thinking? How stupid can you be, Clem?”
Her cheeks flare red, an angry trait we share. “I was proud of you!” she says, her voice boiling over as she stands with the pieces for the new doorbell and the instructions.
I follow her to the doorway with my arms crossed.
“It’s not like you’re the shy type,” she says, a screw between her teeth while she holds the doorbell plate in place. “And Kyle loved it! He was so excited for you.”
“Kyle isn’t the person you think he is.”
“He only meant to post it to the Prism group, and he didn’t do it maliciously. You’ve got to stop acting like he’s always out to get you. Kyle is a good guy and I think y’allcould be really good friends again if you could get over yourself.”
“Oh, that’s nice. Pour some salt in my open wound.”
She shakes her head and looks directly at me. “I need to talk to you about Georgia. I have to make a decision soon.”
“Not right now. My brain is too full and I’m... I’m angry with you. Can it please wait?” It takes all my self-control to not completely turn on her and say all the vicious things running through my head.
She bites down on her lip. Clem hates indecision, and even though I’m sure she’s already made up her mind about next year, it’s still technically an uncertainty. “Sure. Of course.”
I plop down on the couch with Grammy when she returns with a fresh basket of laundry to fold. We watchHollywood Squareswhile Clem connects the doorbell to Grammy’s, Cleo’s, and Bernadette’s phones.
I know I need to hear Clem out, but right now I’ve got too much on my mind. And maybe if I never hear her out, nothing has to change.
Ten
That night, I sit down at home with Mom and Dad and show them Monica Lewinsky’s TED Talk about her scandal and explain to them that I need to disappear for two days.
“I need to wait out the news cycle,” I say.
Mom side-eyes me over her shoulder as she stirs her spaghetti sauce.
“Hear me out. Prom court will be announced first thing Friday morning. If I can stay home for two more days, this whole thing will blow over and when I go back to school, everyone will be talking about prom court.”
Clem looks up from her phone. “He’s not wrong.”
Dad looks to Mom, who eventually shrugs.
“Two days,” he says. “No more.”
