He handed my phone back to me. “I added my number to your contacts.”
I wanted to say something like, “I’ll delete it as soon as you leave,” but we both would’ve known it was a lie.
Chapter 6
BEFORE
December, Fourteen Years Ago
By the time December came around, I was in a steady routine with the Delvecchio family. The first month I worked there I’d ride my bike to the restaurant, and Jackson and Julie would drive me home in the truck. On Fridays, Jackson and I would walk from school to the restaurant, where we’d change in the bathroom before getting ready to work. When it rained or the weather got too cold, I allowed them to pick me up for my shift.
Julie started waitressing again once I was fully trained, so Jackson and I worked in a perfect tandem on Fridays and Saturdays as the only bussers. Closing the restaurant with them wasfun;they made work feel like a hangout instead of a job. They showed me so much music, and I wasn’t shy around them anymore. Now I was dancing on the tables and singing into mop handles with them.
On occasional Saturdays, Phil and Marie would pop in during the dinner rush, and I couldn’t believe what a force Marie could be in the kitchen. Her quiet demeanor disappeared and she turned into afierce woman, barking orders. She never lost her cool, and she stayed professional while telling everyone what to do.
Jackson, I’d learned, was one of those guys that was friends with everyone. He didn’t have a specific friend group—instead, he rotated between the jocks, the stoners, the band kids, the drama kids, and even the brainy students. He asked genuine questions, and he knew how to make people laugh without even trying. Every day I walked into the cafeteria at lunch not knowing where he’d be sitting. He didn’t seem to have a routine or a schedule for where he sat each day; he just joined whoever he happened to talk to in the hallway before lunch. Buteveryday he waved me over to sit with him, wherever he was. His energy was addicting, and it wasn’t long before I realized I had a crush on him. It wasn’t like he was going out of his way for me or anything. He was nice to everyone, but I couldn’t help feeling special that I wasoneof the people who got to revolve in his orbit.
On the Sunday before Christmas, the Delvecchios threw a staff Christmas party at the bowling alley in Tostela. It felt like an actual family Christmas party. I had never enjoyed the holiday with Peter and my mom as much as I was enjoying my night with my coworkers.
Mom had invited us up to Traverse City for Christmas, but there was no way I could sit in a car with Peter for three hours, and the thought of being trapped in her boyfriend’s house for an entire weekend made my stomach hurt. Peter still hadn’t even decided if he was going yet.
At the end of the employee Christmas party, Jackson pulled me aside. “Hey, you know Ezra from the football team?”
I had to wrack my brain for who Jackson was talking about. Each friend group of his was organized in my head by the little traits I could remember. Finally, it clicked. “Ezra, the one who broke his arm at the homecoming game?”
Jackson nodded. “He’s having a party tonight. Do you want to come with me?”
It was Christmas break, and if I didn’t have to go home to Peter, that was a plus. We mostly avoided each other throughout the week since he worked from two to ten pm, so when I woke up for school he was still sleeping, and I always made sure I was in my room before he got home. On Saturdays he was typically at a bar, so that left Sundays as my least favorite day of the week.
“Sure,” I said.
This would be my first high school party, and Ezra was a junior, so I assumed it would be mostly older kids. Jackson wasn’t just friends with kids from every social group, but from every grade, too. I think it was because he had two siblings who were both older than him: Julie by four years, and Sam by seven. And Julie wasn’t joking that first day I met them; Jackson reallydidget held back in kindergarten, so he was already fifteen when he started freshman year.
Julie was nice enough to drop us off at the party, and I followed Jackson into the basement. It was mostly kids from the junior varsity and varsity football teams, along with some of the cheerleaders. Everyone seemed to say hi to Jackson at the same time, and someone brought him a red Solo Cup. I declined when he offered me a sip—the only time I had ever drank was after we had a busy shift at the restaurant before Thanksgiving, when Julie sneaked us each a glass of wine while we were closing.
Everyone was sitting in a circle in the middle of the room, with two stacks of cards in the middle. “We’re playing seven minutes in heaven,” Ezra told us with a waggle of his eyebrows.
Jackson laughed. “Come on, we’re freshmen and even we’re not that juvenile.” I looked up at Jackson, wondering what he usually didat the other parties he had been to. Or how many girls he had kissed, for that matter.
“Oh, don’t be a lame ass, join the circle. You too, Addie.” I was surprised Ezra remembered my name, and I hesitantly looked over at Jackson. He just shrugged at me and pulled me down next to him.
“We’re just waiting for Paul and Emily to come back,” the girl next to me said. I tapped my fingers nervously against my kneecaps. Jackson took a few large gulps from his cup until the couple who had been in the closet came back with smiles on their faces.
“So the way we’re playing is a guy grabs a card from this deck,” Ezra explained as he pointed to the stack of cards on the left. “And then all the girls grab from the right deck. Whichever girl has the same card as the guy has to go in the closet.”
I looked up at Jackson warily, but he just smiled back at me like it was no big deal.
“Jackson, you may do the honors,” Ezra said as he lifted his cup.
Jackson shuffled the cards on the left before settling with his pick. I nervously watched all the girls reach forward for a card in the other pile. Jackson elbowed me, motioning for me to grab the last card. I tried to keep my fingers from shaking as I picked it up.
Jackson looked around the circle mischievously before dramatically slapping his card down. I looked back and forth between his card and mine, my eyes widening when I saw we both had the queen of diamonds.
All the other girls put down their cards face up, and I watched as Jackson looked around at all of them. I didn’t want to put my card down. I could feel my face heating, and my hands hadn’t stopped shaking. Jackson’s smile turned to a frown when he realized none of the cards on the floor were a match. He finally looked over at me, pinching his eyebrows together when he noticed I still had my card inmy hands. He smirked before plucking the card right out of my fingers. When he realized we both had the same card, his eyes widened, too. His gaze cut to mine, his lips parting in shock.
“Oh shit, Addie has the match!” one of the boys from the football team said, and everyone started hollering and cheering. I gave Jackson a nervous smile, and he chugged the rest of the beer in his cup before throwing it down theatrically and grabbing my hand to drag me to the closet.
“Have fun, kiddos!” another girl called after us.