Page 36 of Puck with Karma
“I’ve never been barefooted in a public area before,” she whispers.
I look at her in surprise. I thought all girls loved walking around barefoot.
“Ever?”
She shrugs in self-deprecation. “My mom would’ve lost her mind had I done that.”
I stare at her and try to remember if my mother ever yelled at me for running around barefooted. There’s nothing specific about it in my memory bank. I then think of my sister, Janie. I’m sure she must’ve been running around with no shoes on all the time. I frown at nothing in particular when I realize that I don’t remember much of Janie’s likes or dislikes from when we were growing up.
“Do you have siblings?” I ask Abby from seemingly out of nowhere. She hesitates for a second.
“Uh, yeah. I-I have two brothers.”
“Nice,” I bob my head up and down. “Older? Younger?”
“Older,” she now says a little more confidently.
“Are you close?” I don’t meet her eyes when I ask that. I don’t want her to even guess that I don’t have a relationship with my sister, not like siblings do.
“We… We’re not particularly close, no.”
A weight gets lifted off my shoulders when she says that. The doors to the elevator open just then, and we both step in. She pushes the button for the second floor without me having to ask, then we fall back into silence.
“Were you close growing up?”
I can’t seem to let this go for some reason.
“They’re both much older than me,” she shrugs. “I thought I was closer to my middle brother. But after he went to college, we lost touch.”
“How come?”
I am drawn to everything she wants to tell me, and I want to know what her family dynamic is. I already know that mine is a shit show.
“Our parents didn’t approve of his plans for the future.”
Her eyes get glassy and her mouth sets in a small pout, almost as if she’s trying not to cry in front of me. There seems to be so much more to that story, and I want to know everything about it, but now it doesn’t seem to be a good time for it.
The doors to the elevator open with a smooth glide, revealing the second floor. Abby gets out first, in a hurry to be out of the car.
“I’m the third apartment on the left,” she mumbles my way.
I follow her at a much slower pace, loving the way her bare feet touch the floor. Her movements are graceful, she was taught how to walk and talk, how to present herself to the world.
I can’t help but wonder how she ended up wanting to work with a bunch of burly hockey players. Something doesn’t add up, and I have no idea why I even care.
With an obviously shaky hand, she unlocks the door to her apartment, but doesn’t walk in right away. Instead, she turns to look at me, worry in her eyes.
“My apartment is very small,” she informs me in a confident tone, but her body is betraying her.
“Does it have a bed?”
She finally smiles again. “Yes, it has a bed.”
“Is the bed big enough for the both of us?”
She lifts a shoulder in a shrug. “It’ll be a little cramped.”
I nod in understanding, and I’m not sure if she thinks I’m about to run out of here because of the size of her bed, but she definitely looks surprised when I place my hand to the middle of her back and give her a gentle push to go through the doorway. I follow, then close and lock the door behind me.
