Julia bit her lip. She wondered if it was still pink. “Okay, well ... now you have to tell me why you were in Michigan. Really.”
Wyatt laughed. “That’s okay, you don’t have to ask. You have nothing to prove—we hardly know each other.”
“I’m telling you,” she said, “that’s when friendship works best—when you don’thaveto prove anything. You can just trust that the other person cares.”
He looked in Julia’s eyes again. Like he was testinghernow. She really missed her glasses.
“My parents are getting a divorce,” Wyatt said.
“Oh.” Julia blinked. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“They were going to wait until I graduated. It’s only one more year. But—my mom is dating someone.” He looked away. “So.”
“Is that why she needed space?”
“Yeah.”
“What about your dad?”
Wyatt rolled his eyes. “He’s a mess. He’s living with my grandma.”
“Oh, wow.”
“So my mom sent me to Michigan.”
“You didn’t have any choice?”
“I guess I could have stayed here and watched her make out with our neighbor ...”
“Oh mygod.”
“It’s fine, Michigan was whatever. My uncle really did teach me to build fireplaces.”
“That’s useful,” Julia said.
He shrugged. “I guess.”
“I’ve never lived in a house with a fireplace,” she said. “My dad told me that Santa used the front door—that the elves made him a magic key.”
Wyatt laughed. “I mean, that makes more sense.”
She laughed, too. “It does.”
He looked down at his knee. Or maybe at hers. “I can’t believe I’m telling you all this,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s easier to talk to strangers.”
He peered up at her without lifting his head. “Is that what you are?”
The breeze picked up just then and blew Julia’s hair into her face. She turned away from it, scrabbling her hair out of her eyes with her fingers. That was a mistake—she was wearing space-age mascara with tiny fibers in it, and she rubbed some fiber into her left eye. “Ah,” she said, blinking.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” She blinked again. Too hard. She felt her contact lens slide up under her eyelid. “Oh my god.”
Wyatt held up his hands but didn’t touch her. “What’s wrong?”
Julia was trying to maneuver the contact back in place by moving her eye. “It’s my contact ... I just ...” She was blinking so hard that she blinked theothercontact lens out of her right eye. “Ohno.”
