Back Pumpkin
Chapters (44)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-One
  25. Twenty-Two
  26. Twenty-Three
  27. Twenty-Four
  28. Twenty-Five
  29. Twenty-Six
  30. Twenty-Seven
  31. Twenty-Eight
  32. Twenty-Nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty-One
  35. Thirty-Two
  36. Thirty-Three
  37. Thirty-Four
  38. Thirty-Five
  39. Thirty-Six
  40. Acknowledgments
  41. About the Author
  42. Books by Julie Murphy
  43. Back Ad
  44. About the Publisher

I nod thoughtfully. “I think your mom was onto something. Lucky for Beulah, I would never objectify a woman.”

We take on the next car, an old minivan with wood paneling.

“I’ll take this one,” Tucker says. “These older cars can be tricky.”

“I won’t argue you on that,” I say.

While he’s cranking the jack, he says, “So you’re a twin? What’s that like?”

I shake my head. “Only the best and worst thing in the world.”

He laughs. “How so?”

“Well, we want to be together all the time, but then it’s like always being with someone who knows you a little too well and feeling like you can’t even be spontaneous sometimes. And then every decision I make takes Clem into account.” I slide the tray under the car for him while he crawls under. “But then sometimes she doesn’t do the same for me . . . I don’t know, it’s complicated. We’re so codependent, but I also wouldn’t change us for anything.”

“What do you mean, she doesn’t do the same for you?”

I launch into the entire story about Clem and college and keeping it all a secret from me, and when I’m done Tucker emerges from beneath the van with a few more stains than he had going in.

He sits there on the pavement for a moment with his arms propped up on his knees. “That’s tough.”

“What can I say? My Clementine knows what she wants.”

“But what do you want?” asks Tucker. “To go to Austin?”

I laugh bitterly. “Me? I knew what I wanted. She’s the one that changed course without even telling me.”

He shrugs. “You could go to Georgia with her.”

“. . . I could.” I reach a hand out to help him up and he takes it, but once he’s standing he doesn’t let go.

We stand, eye to eye, close enough for me to smell the coffee on his breath. “But you won’t,” he says.

“I don’t really like the idea of following her out there, if you get what I mean.”

He smirks. “Yeah, you don’t strike me as a follower.”

I pout and cross my arms, yanking my hand free of his. “It’s just really shitty of her.”

“God, Waylon, maybe this isn’t even about your sister.” He rolls his eyes.

“I’m sorry, but are you frustrated with my feelings about my own life?”

He shakes his head and walks off.

“Say it!” I yell to him. “You can’t roll your eyes at me and then say it’s nothing.”

He whirls around and throws his arms up. “You have cool-ass parents. They’re not on you about your future, and you can basically do anything you want with your life. Your sister changed plans without telling you and that sucks. I get it. But you’re not stuck here.”