“Yeah,” Caela said. “You know, that pizza place a few blocks from here.”
“Why?” Rob asked.
“Why?”
“Why do you need a job? What do you need money for?”
Caela shrugged. “I don’t know. It just seems like a good way to keep busy. I’ll be able to pay for gas money.”
“We give you enough gas money to get to school and back,” her mother said. “Where else do you need to go?”
Caela looked down at her plate of barely touched food. This was how almost every conversation went with them. “I don’t know. To the mall or the movies?” In truth, she wanted the job just to have a reason to be out of this house a few extra hours a week.
“Will you bring us pizza?” Sam asked, bouncing in his chair, blissfully oblivious to the tension at the table.
“Sometimes. What kind would you want me to bring?”
“Pineapple!”
Caela wrinkled her nose at him. “Only for you, kiddo.” She glanced at Rob, knowing her mother would only agree to this if he allowed it. “If I’m able to get a job, of course.”
The adults exchanged a look, both frowning, before Rob turned back to Caela.
“Fine.”
And that was the end of that.
Atleast until she met Bonnie.
Bonnie was another employee at Ricci’s. Caela worked the register while she made deliveries. She was a bit older than Caela, freshly eighteen, having graduated a few months earlier, and based on the looks some of the customers gave her when they spotted her in the restaurant, she clearly had a reputation.
“Who died?”
It was the first thing Bonnie said to Caela on the night they met. She was taking the trash out to the dumpster, and Caela was on her break, scrolling through Eliza’s Instagram feed while she waited for a response to a text she’d sent hours ago. In those brief moments when she was away from her mother’s family and out of view of customers or classmates, Caela let the fake smile fall away. She must have looked as miserable as she felt.
She turned to look at Bonnie. Looked her straight in the eyes.
“My dad.”
“Oh.” Bonnie winced. “Crap. I’m sorry.”
Caela looked back down at her phone and refreshed her feed. She regretted this immediately, though. Because right there on her screen—the very first photo—was a post from one of her former classmates, taken at what looked like a party. That wasn’t theproblem, however. The problem was the two very familiar figures in the background, making out on a couch.
Caela’s heart sank into her stomach.
No wonder Eliza hadn’t texted her back yet.
She had no reason to be upset. Eliza was just a friend, no matter how Caela felt about her. And yet, there was a gut-wrenching sense of betrayal. Maybe it was because part of her had still held out hope that perhaps one day something would happen between them. Maybe it was because it had only been a couple of months since Eliza assured her she didn’t like Grady that way. Had she been lying? Or had things already changed that much since Caela left? If something had changed, why hadn’t Eliza told her? Weren’t they still best friends?
Her phone began to buzz, an alarm letting her know her break was coming to an end. She swallowed the lump in her throat, closed the app, and got to her feet.
Bonnie looked over at her again. “You wanna hang out after your shift?” she asked. “My ex is throwing a barn party tonight, and I don’t wanna give him the satisfaction of showing up alone.”
“Thanks for the offer,” Caela said, “but I don’t think I’d be very good company right now.”
“Girl,I’mnevergood company,” Bonnie retorted. “Pretty rancid company, in fact. We’ll get along fine.”
Caela laughed. Just a small laugh, but it was the first one in weeks.
