“Good. Then I’m going to go. I’d say ‘See you later’ but, let’s be honest, I kind of hope I don’t. No offense.”
I nodded again.
And then she was gone. And I stayed in that café for another hour, staring out the window and wondering what I was supposed to do next.
I’m still trying to figure that out.
From Eden:
I guess I made Rosi sound kind of bad in my letter. We just didn’t get along, which is hard when you are the only kids in a family that’s as close-knit as ours.
There were a few times, though, when I think she tried to bridge the gap between us. Like when I showed up at Abuela’s house one afternoon and found Rosi sitting on the couch reading a manga. The minute I walked into the room she tried to stash it away, but I’d noticed.
“What were you reading?”
“Nothing. It’s stupid.”
I rolled my eyes and started to walk past her, toward the kitchen, but she stopped me by clearing her throat.
“Actually … could you help me?”
“Help … with what?”
She held up the manga. “I borrowed it from my friend Jared. I know you’re into this kind of stuff. But I don’t understand how to read it. It doesn’t make sense.”
“You read the panels from right to left,” I said. “The opposite of American stuff.”
“Oh. Well, that explains a lot. Thanks.” She hesitated. “Have you read this one?”
I looked at the cover, which had an illustration of a very tiny (but busty) woman wielding a massive sword.
“No, but it looks cool.”
“It is,” she said. “Well, at least I think it is. Even though I only just now figured out how to read it. But Jared says it’s great. He says the girl in it is a real badass. Apparently they made a video game based on the series.”
“Cool.”
“Maybe … maybe you can borrow it from Jared after I finish,” she suggested. “I bet he wouldn’t mind.”
“Maybe.”
I wish I’d followed through with that. Even if I hadn’t borrowed it from Jared, I could have checked it out at the library or ordered a copy online. I don’t know why I never did. I guess I didn’t take her suggestion seriously, or worried she was setting me up just to tease me or something. Looking back, I don’t think she was, though.
As much as Rosi liked to shut me out and overshadow me when our family was around, I do think she wanted us to have something to talk about. Some common ground to share. Maybe if I’d tried a little harder, we could have been close.
Or maybe not. We were just so different that it’s hard to imagine a world in which we were friends.
Still, I think about that day in Abuela’s living room a lot, about Rosi clutching the manga in her hands, the popular cheerleader extending a geeky olive branch. And as much as I regret not taking it, that’s a memory I want to hold on to.
I can’t forget the bad things about her and pretend she was perfect the way people seem to want you to after someone dies. But I can remember little moments like this and believe that, maybe in some parallel universe, Rosi is alive and the two of us have worked things out over a stack of manga.
I needed to see Miles.
I stopped at a gas station on my way back to Virgil County and sent him a text message. I still wasn’t entirely sure what had happened at prom the night before, why he of all of us wouldn’t want to tell his story, but after talking to Kellie, I realized that maybe he’d had a point.
He sent me back an address. He, Denny, and Amber had gone to a party at some junior’s house. I groaned and put my phone away before starting up the truck again. A crowded party was the last place I wanted to be, especially the night after prom, but I knew that if I went home now, I’d just end up sitting around, waiting for Miles and driving myself into a spiral of guilt and anxiety.
The sun had already set by the time I parked my truck down the street from the address Miles had given me. I texted him again, letting him know that I’d be at the house in a minute and that I wanted to talk. He didn’t reply, and I was sure he was worried I’d just come here to pressure him into writing a letter again.
