Page 43 of The Heart That Breaks
I hear a sound coming from my back pack and realize it’s the phone Nathan gave me. I unzip the bag and pull it out, reading the message on the screen.
Sure you’re okay?
I consider telling him the truth, if for no other reason than the release of my own fear. But I can’t. It’s too awful. Too humiliating. Too different from the world Nathan lives in with a mom who’s home when he gets there, a dad who wants him to go to writing sessions with him.
I really can’t imagine what it would be like to go home to that every day. And so I answer in the only way that seems to make sense.
Everything is good here.
*
Nathan
I PICK MATT up on the way to school.
For some reason, I didn’t sleep well, turning side to side in my bed throughout the night, and I’m not sure how I’ll stay awake in my classes this morning. I’m driving Dad’s Jeep and pull into the Starbucks drive through on 21st Avenue.
I order the biggest coffee they have, and Matt asks for some frilly Frappucino thing that I give him heck about every time he orders it. Today is no exception. “One day you’ll grow up and drink real coffee,” I say, passing him the whip cream topped drink.
“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” he says, taking a sip through the green straw.
“I just need some caffeine,” I say.
“What? You up all night talking with Ann-Elizabeth?”
“Nothing that interesting. Just couldn’t sleep.”
“Thinking about her?”
I shrug. “More like worrying, I guess.”
“Why?”
“Her mom’s boyfriend sounds like he’s missing a few critical chips on the motherboard.”
“That sucks. She scared of him?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a little.”
“He ever hit her?”
I pull forward and then out of the Starbucks parking lot. “I don’t think so. But she sleeps outside with Henry at night because the asshole won’t let him in the house.”
Matt pulls back and looks at me in disbelief. “What?”
“I know.”
“What about when it gets really cold?”
“She says she might sneak him in, but if the boyfriend finds him, he’ll take him to the pound.”
“Dang,” Matt says, taking another sip of his Frappucino. “I didn’t know she had all that going on.”
“Doesn’t seem fair, does it?”
“What?”
“I don’t know. The fact that some of us get an easier start.”
