Back in Lorial, Mom and I loved to eat our meals on the couch while catching up on our shows, so I look in the comfy living room first. It’s empty. I hear laughter from the kitchen and head down the hallway. Mom is at the island putting food into serving dishes. Kayla and Travis are already sitting at the long dining table, both immersed in their phones.
“Hi,” my mom says, “what do you want to drink?”
“I’ll have what everyone else is having?” I say with a shrug.
She nods and points me to the table to sit. I assume the seat across from Kayla is mine and slide myself into it.
Travis smiles. Kayla doesn’t look up.
“Mom, can I help you?” I ask, hoping she’ll say yes and I can get up and do something—anything to avoid the silence that seems to be uncomfortable only to me.
“Nope. Where’s my sous chef?” She waves Travis over. He drops his phone and marches to the counter.
“Right here,” he says, kissing her cheek.
I try to hide my surprise; this is the first time I’ve seen her like this. On the extremely rare occasions she attempted dating, it never got serious enough to bring anyone home. She would joke with her coworkers that a relationship would just give her a grown man to parent, and so she didn’t really date—at least as far as I knew.
“Kaylaaaa, how about we do thethingnow?” my mom asks.
Kayla finally looks up from her phone and pushes a silver box toward me. “This is yours,” she says with a glimmer of a knowing smile.
I thank her and put the box in my lap, not sure what to do with it, but my mom urges me to open it. I rip a corner of the wrapping paper and almost jump out of my seat—it’s a cell phone.
“Happy belated birthday from all of us!” my mom exclaims.
I haven’t had a phone in forever. The court confiscated the one I’d just gotten for my birthday last year, and the center monitored all our calls. Good behavior could earn you one unit call a week, but according to them, mine never did. I don’t exactly have anyone to hit up right now, but that doesn’t matter.
“Thank you so much, guys!!” I exclaim, excitement overtaking my awkwardness.
Travis and my mom high-five each other, pleased with their gift.
“Seriously, guys, it’s just a cell phone,” Kayla groans. “It’s literally the twenty-first century.”
Her dad shoots her a look, and she rolls her eyes in my direction. I give her a polite smile even though I don’t feel that way at all—I’m so excited about my new phone. I don’t expect her to understand.
“Well, just don’t put me on speed dial because apparently, I’munreliable,” she says, turning to her dad as she forms air quotes.
I realize her attitude might have nothing to do with me.
Travis’s smile flattens and his voice gets a little serious. “Ignore her, please. Emergency contacts are on that wall,” he says, pointing to a whiteboard covered in my mom’s handwriting. “I’m sure you’ll have friends’ numbers to add soon.”
“Newfriends’ numbers,” my mom says. “Friends who are a good influence. Anyway, you’ll need a phone when you start driving.” My stomach flips, and I look at Mom with wide eyes. She gives me a small smile. “We’ll start practicing so you can get your permit. But again, Jasmine, these are privileges that can be taken away.”
“I know,” I say, but I can’t stop the grin growing on my face.
Travis and Kayla don’t react, which makes me wonder if this is a conversation they’ve had before. About me showing up, about the “challenges” I’ll face reacclimating to the outside world, about how they’ll have to help me start over? My face flushes in shame, but nobody seems to notice.
Kayla looks from me to Travis and Mom and back again, her brow furrowed. “What did you do anyway?” she asks.
“Kayla,” Travis hisses.
She holds her hands up. “Sorry, sheesh. It was just a question,” she says, and turns back to her phone. But she doesn’t sound sorry at all. She’s probably been asking for weeks, wondering what a teenage girl has to do to get sent away.
If it were a simple answer, I’d give it to her.
“Well, thank you, again,” I say as Travis places the asparagus and potatoes in front of me and my mom puts down a pan with some sort of saucy chicken. Then they each take a seat at opposite ends of the table. It’s like a holiday meal.
Travis asks Kayla to put her phone away and she does. My mom looks at me.
