Page 20 of Going the Distance
“I’m sure Levi misses her, too.”
Becca pursed her lips. “I think he still cries about her sometimes.”
If I’d wanted to say anything else, I couldn’t: the front door opened. I hadn’t even heard a car pull up outside. Keys jangled and plastic bags rustled and a voice called, “I’m home! Whose car is that outside, Levi? Have you got a friend over?”
A woman I assumed could only be their mother walked in, dropping down some Publix bags filled with groceries. She wore a pantsuit and didn’t have a hair out of place, but despite the stern appearance, she had a kind face, which softened her whole demeanor.
“Hello.”
“Hi. You must be Mrs.Monroe.” I stood up quickly, putting on my most parent-pleasing smile. “I’m Elle, a friend of Levi’s from school. It’s so nice to meet you.”
She smiled back. “I’m Nicole. Lovely to meet you, too. Levi’s told me a lot about you.”
“Mom.”He’d just appeared in the doorway behind her. Catching my eye, he shot me an apologetic smile.
“Oh, Levi, go put the groceries away, will you? Have you had a bath yet, Becca?”
“No, but we made brownies.”
“I hope you saved me some.”
Before Becca let her mom usher her upstairs, she poked my arm and said very politely, “Thank you for babysitting me.”
I suppressed a giggle, but smiled. “You’re very welcome, Becca.”
She babbled away to her mom as they went upstairs, and I collected the two remaining Publix bags and took them to the kitchen.
“Oh, thanks.” Levi took them from me. “I was just about to come back for those.”
“Your sister’s not half as bad as you made her out to be, you know.”
“I could say the same for your brother. Maybe we should switch them.”
“That might not be such a bad idea.” I looked past him at the clock hanging on the wall. “I guess I should probably head home….”
“You don’t have to leave,” Levi said quickly, then blushed. “I mean, you’re welcome to stay a little longer, if you want, but obviously you don’t have to.”
“I don’t mind staying.” And then I heard myself saying, “So, um, your sister was telling me about Julie.”
Levi’s whole body seemed to sigh.
“You never mentioned her at school, to any of us.”
And I hadn’t seen anything on his social media about her. Rachel and I had snooped, one lunchtime.
“She broke up with me when we found out we were moving here. We’d been together since freshman year. Itwas…”
“Whoa.”
And I’d thought a few months felt like a long time to be dating.
“When I broke the news about the move, she broke up with me then and there. She said that senior year was really important—and it is, obviously—and that a relationship on top of all that was hard enough, but a long-distance relationship was something she didn’t think she could handle. She said…she said it was better this way for both of us. A clean break. And that was that.”
“You didn’t fight for her?”
“She didn’t want me to. I tried, but not much. It was killing her, I could see. She didn’t want to break up, but she didn’t want a boyfriend she’d probably not see unless we ended up at the same college. And honestly?” He shrugged, giving me a smile. “I have no plans to go to college. So that was never gonna happen.”
I blinked, surprised. We’d all been talking a lot about college lately, and now that I thought about it, Levi had never shown much enthusiasm or talked about where he wanted to apply or what he wanted to major in.
