BooksBarbecue
Back Undone Save as PDF
Chapters (34)
  1. Cover
  2. undone
  3. Dedication
  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. Acknowledgments

“Empty cup? We’d better get you a refill, keg’s getting low,” is what he said. What I heard was: “Let’s get you out of here.”

nine

Anthony led me away from the party, instinctively knowing I needed to get away from the crush of bodies.

He tugged me a little closer to him. Whispered, “I wanted you to be here.”

“Yeah?”

As we neared a park bench, he took his arm away. “Yeah, I wanted to talk to you.”

After he sat with his legs spread the way guys always do, and his elbows propped up on the back on the bench, there was no room left for me. I had no choice but to stand in front of him. I fiddled with my plastic cup, unease swirling in the pit of my stomach. I just knew he wanted to talk to me about Kori. Find out what her favorite song was or where she liked to eat. I tried not to let my voice waver as I asked, “So, what’s up?”

“I don’t know. I just, I keep seeing you around.”

My heart quickened. “Me?”

“Yeah.” He gave a short laugh. “I wanted to talk to you last night, but I got the feeling you didn’t want to talk to me.” Heat flared over my cheeks. And he tilted his head, amused. “Wait. You weren’t embarrassed about being caught skinny-dipping, were you?”

“No,” I said quickly. “I thought, I don’t know. I thought you were into Kori.”

“Kori?”

“Yeah. I mean, you were kind of all over her after she got out of the lake. Just seemed like, you know, you were into her. And I didn’t even go in …” I stopped myself before I babbled too much. Although, judging from the look on his face—a mixture of confusion and curiosity—I’d crossed that line already.

“Why didn’t you go in the lake?”

“I just didn’t.” I looked at my boots. This wasn’t my idea of fun. In fact, I seriously was ready to start telling him Kori’s favorite TV shows. “I didn’t think she would do it, okay?”

“That bothers you?”

“Yes. I mean, no. It doesn’t bother me that she did it. It’s just, I was there, I was ready. I didn’t have a good reason not to follow her in. I just … I got scared.”

Behind us the party was a drone of noise, a bundle of tangled energy. Around us settled a still and patient silence. In the cold air, I could see Anthony exhale. He sat forward and started taking off his watch. When he held out his hand for mine, I thought he was going to suggest we go skinny-dipping together.