“I doubt it,” Hannah says, mimicking my tone.
“Give her some credit. I know I can be a little straightforward about things that some parents don’t really talk to their kids about, but that’s because I don’t have time to beat around the bush,” Mom says, winking at me. “With that said, I’m gonna get out of your hair and eat my food before it gets cold, let y’all do your homework.”
“Finally,”I say, pretending to let out a breath and rolling my eyes dramatically.
“Holler if you need me,” Mom says, shuffling down the hallway, her socks silent on the hardwood floors.
“Shereallywants you to be with a guy,” Hannah whispers.
Surprising myself, I whisper back, “We don’t know that for sure. She just wants me to fall in love someday—”
“But the assumption,” Hannah whispers, though her voice trails off. “It’s just a lot.”
After a couple hours of studying and an entire family-size bag of Pizza Rolls split between us for dinner, Hannah packs up her bag, and I shout down the hall to let Mom know I’m walking her out. I silently close the door behind us, aware of the privacy the wall offers that we didn’t have before with my mom possibly eavesdropping from her room.
I tug on Hannah’s hand and pull her into a kiss. I should’ve kissed her when she got here, but I was so anxious about how tonight would go, about how we’d left things. Now, I just wish we had more time.
“This was fun,” I say when I pull away.
“We didn’t burst into flames,” Hannah concurs, smiling.
“What is it with you and this bursting into flames at my house thing?”
“The whole religion and hellfire concept,” she says, chuckling.
“Ha ha, so funny,” I say, monotone and shoving her on our way outside to the driveway. “You’ll text that you made it home okay?”
“Of course,” she says, her voice quiet, as she tosses her backpack into the back seat. She closes the door and turns to me, not moving to open the driver’s side door.
“What?”
“There’s this Halloween party at the end of the month.”
I wasn’t necessarily anticipating what she was going to say, butthiswasn’t it.
“Oh?” I reply.
“Halloween falls on a Tuesday this year, so the party will be on the Saturday before… which I know is on your birthday. But if you’re free and you want to, I’m inviting you,” she explains, looking down.
“A Halloween party,” I say, turning the idea over in my head. I’m a senior in high school and I haven’toncebeen invited to any Halloween parties. Kristen and I usually hang out. We would trick-or-treat together when we were younger and then graduated to gorging on our own stash of store-bought candy and watching movies as we got older.
A party might be fun.
“Can I invite Kristen and her boyfriend?” I ask. “Kristen and I have always spent Halloween together…”
“Yeah, invite them!” she quickly adds. “All of youhaveto come—”
“Oh, wehaveto?”
“Youdo, for sure,” Hannah says, her smile flooding her eyes.
Chapter Thirty-One
I take another sip of my coffee and lean back in the padded leather chair I pulled into the Sunshine Saints room. Mrs. Patricia is out of town for a family funeral so I’m on my own this morning. Birds chirp in the branches brushing against the window and sunlight slants through the dusty glass, hitting the empty tables with a romantic glow.
The room lacks warmth without Mrs. Patricia. Her mothering nature, the way she dotes on details like arranging the crayons and papers, makes the space feel akin to home. I thought I’d be calmer without her here; I don’t have to double-check all my thoughts before I say them aloud and there’s no need to worry that any moment alone with her will turn into a conversation about Camp Refuge. Instead, I’m anxious about running an entire class by myself.
The lesson is simple. I have my notes. I have the game I created. I picked out a board book for reading time. And I printed off pictures for the kids to color. All my bases are covered.