Page 14 - My FlipBook

L IS A J. L A W R E N C E

“You see?” Patty said. “This is exactly what I’m talking
about. Thank you, Ash, for illustrating my point. Roger…”
Roger held up his hands in a time-out.
“Let me know when Patty gives you your balls back,
Roger,” Ash said, pushing away from the table and walking
to his storage closet. The door, hanging crooked in its frame,
only made a thunk when he tried to slam it.
Patty started shouting, and Roger lowered his head into

his hands.
“Can I go now? I’ve got homework,” Greta lied. No one
was listening anyway.
She got up from the table and went to her room. It wasn’t
much bigger than Ash’s closet, but at least it actually was a
bedroom, with a window, a bed off the floor and a dresser. At
some point someone had painted the walls a deep burgundy, ADVANCE READING COPY

but all the dents and gashes revealed a sickly yellow under-
neath. It’s temporary. She told herself that every time she
noticed the basement swallow any sunlight, every time a
fungus-shaped frost crept up the inside of the windows, every
time she saw Ash staring up at the bare bulb in the storage
room. Temporary.
They hadn’t even discussed who got the bedroom. That
was the worst part. Roger and Patty had just dropped her
boxes in here during the last move. “I guess I’ll take this…

room,” Ash had said, eyeing the storage space. “I’m sure it’s
up to code.”
Patty gave him a look and said, “Suck it up, Buttercup.”
No one came out and said it, but in the country run

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