Page 14 of Love Conquers All

“Do you want to see my notes?” Sylvie asked.

Graham nodded. “Sounds like a good place to start.”

When Sylvie and Graham reached Sylvie’s house, Sylvie tiptoed into the foyer to call out for her father. “Dad?” When nobody answered, she beckoned for Graham to come inside.

“Are you not allowed to have people over?” he asked.

Sylvie gave him a look. “I mean, are you allowed to have random girls over without asking your mom?”

“You aren’t random,” Graham said.

Sylvie didn’t know what to say to that. She certainly didn’t want to tell Graham that nobody had been over to visit her, not since her and Caitlin’s big friend breakup. She was surprised that she wasn’t embarrassed by the house, of the big photographs that featured her mother and Sylvie as a toddler, of the dishes piled up in the sink. They went up the stairs to her bedroom. It was tidy, mostly because her father grew incredibly volatile if she didn’t keep it that way. Her research notes were on the desk. She handed them to Graham, again searching his eyes for some sign of betrayal. He clutched the papers and looked at her with an open and earnest face.

He said, “But what can we do?”

Sylvie frowned. “What do you mean?”

“What can we do about the oceans? How can we save them?”

Sylvie dropped to the edge of the bed so that the mattress shook beneath her. She gazed out the window, where, far down the road, she could make out a sliver of Nantucket Sound.

“It’s basically up to politicians and corporations,” she said sadly.

“I don’t believe that,” Graham offered. “There has to be something. Change starts with one person. One person telling someone else. Your poster inspired me, Sylvie. I went home andtalked to my mom about how much we recycle, and we have a whole new plan in place. I’m reading about vegetarianism.”

Sylvie took a breath. She hadn’t imagined such intensity behind Graham Ellis.

With a meek voice, she said, “I’m vegetarian, too.”

“Of course you are,” he said with a big smile. “It’s environmentally responsible.”

Silence filled the room. For a moment, Sylvie allowed herself to imagine the two of them throwing their arms around one another and kissing.Kissing as though the world was about to end anyway, she thought.

But then she said, “There’s no reason we can’t start small.”

“Exactly,” Graham said, snapping his fingers. “Think about our community.”

“Or our school,” she said. “I think they barely recycle. And the food they serve in the cafeteria is not environmentally friendly. And so many people have their own cars and drive themselves to school. I mean, carpooling would do so much.”

Graham nodded furiously. Idealism sizzled between them.

“We could even get a crew together to clean up the beaches,” he said.

Sylvie popped off her bed to grab her notebook. “We have to write all this down.”

They spent the next three hours listing out ideas and hatching plans. Sylvie was surprised at how many times Graham made her laugh despite the seriousness of the situation. She was amazed at how often she made him smile.

When they were finished, they had ten sheets of paper—paper they agreed they would recycle the minute they’d finished with it—upon which they’d listed their environmental goals. Sylvie couldn’t believe how optimistic she felt. When she walked Graham back downstairs to say goodbye, she had to fight the urge to hug him.

“When I made that poster board, I thought we were doomed,” she said softly. “But maybe you’re right. One baby step at a time. Maybe we’ll make a difference.”

Graham looked as though he wanted to say something else. Sylvie was suddenly terrified that he wanted to take it all back, as though he wanted to say,We’re taking it too far. So Sylvie hurried to say, “It’s okay if you want to call it off.”

Graham flinched. “Call it off?”

Sylvie nodded.

But Graham’s smile was crooked and handsome and charged with emotion. He said, “We’re going to take the world by storm.”

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