37
d r a w n a w a y
“So. I didn’t have bus fare. I had to call my mother,
and she left work and drove up and got me. She found
me a counselor and I started going, and I went to the
guidance office at school to figure out how to catch up.”
She made a face. “I couldn’t quite do it, not without a
round of summer school.”
“And you and your mom?” I asked.
“We made peace.”
I nodded cautiously.
Made peace
didn’t sound exactly
like what you’d hope for.
LUCY
I’d been okay for quite a while. All last year, I was fine.
I kept up in school, got my part-time barista job, cooked
myself something decent to eat most nights, got along
okay with my mom.
But now I was actually happy. I used to wake up in the
morning and sort of gird myself for the day. Now, pretty
often, I woke up looking forward to it. And that was
mostly because of Jack. I was pretty messed up when I
first came back to school, and I was working so hard
to get my life together and get caught up that I really
didn’t have room for anything else. I wasn’t exactly
approachable, I guess. And maybe that kind of set the
tone for my social life. But Jack is the kind of person who
connects easily with people, and he was connecting me
up too. Now everything was easier. It was like we all—
