Page 3 of Bookworm
“The bees. Yep. Finn has an apiary over on that side of the lake.”
Oh my God. Haylee was the absolute worst liar in existence. Seriously, my dad would have been better off choosingliterallyany other friend to do this.
“Huh, really? I’ve never heard Finn talk about bees, likeever.”
“Ohhhh yeah. Bees and honey. He’s super passionate about them. Wants to make his own hot honey for the hot dog stand. Hot honey hotdogs!”
“Wow,” I nodded, playing along. Man, this was going to be fun to mess with her for years to come. “I’d love to see the bees sometime.”
She glanced nervously around. “Yeah. Yes, of course. I mean, we only have one beekeeper suit of course, so it’ll be a little tricky.”
“Of course.” The air fryer dinged that it was ready and Haylee immediately picked up on the noise.
“Okay! Well it sounds like your midnight snack is ready. Call me if you need anything andI’lltalktoyoulaterBYE!” She smushed all of her last words together, then promptly hung up on me.
“Bees,” I chuckled and slid the phone back into the pocket of my robe. Dumping the basket of fried deliciousness into a giant popcorn bowl, I grabbed ketchup and honey mustard as well as two cans of Coke and made my way up the stairs.
Couldn’t wait to tell Adam about that. As I climbed the stairs, I almost called up to him, but heard his voice talking first.
Who was he talking to? And at 1:30 in the morning? Or was he watching YouTube on his phone?
I finish climbing the stairs and my footsteps freeze just as I reach the open doorway. My eyes latch onto Adam’s dad’s face taking up the entirety of his screen on a Facetime call. Heart in my throat, I follow my instinct and shrink back, retreating out of view and lean against the door jam.
“Dad, come on, don’t be like this,” he said. He wasn’t exactly whispering, but I could tell he was trying to keep his voice low. “She’s downstairs on the phone. I heard her Facetime ringtone.”
Oh God. His dad called him? And he knew he washere… at my house?! At one-thirty in the morning without my dad home.
Was he planning to tattle on us? Tell my dad what we were up to? Wasn’t that like some sort of parental code?
I knew I should give Adam his privacy, but there was something in his tone that rubbed me the wrong way.
“You need to tell her, Adam,” his Dad’s voice said, then. It was quiet, as though the volume on his Facetime was turned down low. “That’s the only reason I allowed you to stay there tonight. You owe her the explanation before you leave next week.”
Adam was leaving? Nextweek? College orientation wasn’t for two months. We had the whole summer before he was supposed to leave.
“IknowI need to tell her. And I will. It’s just… Dartmouth isn’t that far away from Maple Grove, you know? With the freshman summer program, I can still see her a lot. And she hasn’t chosen a school yet. Maybe she’ll go to UNH?—”
“Adam,” his dad boomed. “Girls like that don’t go to college. Those ‘gap years’ are just lame excuses to start working in the service industry. And even if shecouldhack it in college, she’s not Dartmouth material. You’re going to meet a lot of girls in the next four years. It’s time to let Harper Meyer go. I told you two years ago when you started dating that girl… you’re too good for her. And now here you are. At the crossroads. Don’t throw away your Ivy league college experience because your lame high school girlfriend could never get out of her dead-end town.”
His words hit me like a frosty punch to the gut. Even still, it wasn’t anything I didn’t expect Adam’s father to say.
“This isyourdead-end town, too, Dad.” Adam said, his voice low and lethal.
“Exactly,” Elijah said as a response. “How do you think I know so much about it? I knocked up my high school girlfriend and got stuck in my hometown. Learn from my mistake, son. And for the love of god, use a condom tonight.”
Then, silence.
Heat burned the back of my throat. Tears pricked my eyes. It wasn’t so much what Adam’s dad had said. Elijah had been saying that shit about me for years.
It was the fact that Adam didn’t correct him.
He didn’t fight for me.
He didn’t tell his dad that girls like me can and do go to college. That a gap year is just to figure out what I want to do.That not only could I hack it in college, but IwasDartmouth material.
He didn’t say that itwasn’ttime to let Harper Meyer go.
Or that hewasn’ttoo good for me.
