Page 27 of The Infiniteness of Yesterday
She meets my eyes and quickly looks away, her cheeks turning red.
“Hey.” I smack T.J. in the chest. “I’ll be right back.
“Where are you—” Jason starts, but I ignore him, walking over to the girl.
Standing in front of her, my shadow covers her thin body as she sits at the picnic table.
Clearing my throat, I greet her with a simple, “Hey.”
Real smooth. She probably thinks I’m a creep. The way she has her head angled, I can’t quite see her face completely, but there’s something familiar about her.
“Hi,” she replies and I can tell from her tone that she’s not amused.
“You look familiar. Did we go to school together?” I narrow my eyes on her, trying to piece it together.
She shakes her head adamantly. “I don’t think so.”
“What’s your name?” I ask at the same moment I realize this has to be Willa, Harlow’s sister. I haven’t seen her in years, not since her family pulled her to be home-schooled so she could do her dialysis treatments easier.
“I’m not in the habit of giving my name to strangers.”
I laugh in amusement. She has a similar spunk to Harlow. “I’m Spencer.”
“Willa.”
“Willa … Willa … yeah, I remember you.” I stall, thinking of anything I can say that doesn’t have to do with her disease or even her sister. I don’t want her to say something to her sister and Harlow to think I’m stalking her family. That’d be creepy.Finally, my brain grasps on something. “You had that really cool birthday party at your house when we were in grade school, right?” I pray I’m remembering right. “The bouncy house?” I squint in memory. “Your house is right on the ocean?”
Memories start to come back to me in bits and pieces.
“Y-Yeah, that’s right. That’s me.” I don’t know whether she’s shy or just uncomfortable so I take a step back.
“Harlow is your sister too, yeah?” I confirm, sticking my hands in the pockets of my shorts. She nods, not opening her mouth to utter a word. “I thought so.” I smile at her. “You guys look alike. I miss seeing you around.” As soon as I say it, I know I mean it. I can’t imagine going through what she is. She’s a lot stronger than anyone else I know.
T.J. chooses then to walk up and tap me on the shoulder. “We need to go.”
“I’ll be there in a sec, T.J.”
He nods and then looks to Willa, giving her a small smile and wave before walking back to our friends.
“Well, it was good seeing you, Willa. Maybe we’ll run into each other again sometime.”
“Maybe.”
But her tone says she doubts it, which only makes me grin.
I don’t know what it is, maybe a gut feeling, that tells me that girl and I need each other. I could be wrong, but I think the two of us are going to be good friends.
CHAPTER 10
HARLOW
“If you cover my eyes, I’m going to crash into something and drop you,” Jameson warns Monroe where she’s perched on his shoulders, hands over his eyes as we walk down the sidewalk.
It’s my one weekend of the month, always the last weekend, that I get Roe so Jameson and I decided to take her out, do some shopping, and get treats.
“You would never drop me, Jae. You’re super strong,” she says in a duh-tone.
“You’re right, I am super strong. But my strength isn’t going to help us if I can’t see.”
