by Seven Steps
The door that led from the garage to the kitchen opened, and a sneaker stepped inside, followed by a hand. My jaw tightened as Becks’ tall frame filled my doorway. His eyes darted around the room, as if searching for something.
“Look at you two,” Mom said almost giddily. “Beckett and Lily, together again. Just like when you were kids.”
I smiled tightly.
Becks didn’t smile at all.
“Oh, it’s so good to see you, Beckett.” Mom pulled Becks into a hug that he didn’t return.
“It’s actually Becks now,” he said.
“Oh, that’s right. Your mom did say that. Are you settling in okay?”
“I guess so.” He shrugged and shoved his hands into his pocket. He looked so uncomfortable that I almost felt bad for him.
But why would he be uncomfortable? He practically grew up in this house. My parents fixed more scratched knees and bruised elbows for Becks than they ever did for me. What was his problem?
One of Mom’s brows rose, and she glanced at me.
Yeah, Mom, I know. This isn’t the happy-go-lucky boy we’d all come to know and love. This was a different creature. Somber. There was sadness in his eyes that wasn’t there before he left.
What’d happen to Becks all those years ago?
“Hey, Beckett, uh, I mean Becks,” Rose said.
He gave her a half smile. More than the rest of us got.
“Nice to see you again, Rose,” he said.
Why did she get a nice to see you again and the rest of us got death stares? I started to ask, but Rose grabbed me by the arm and dragged me into the living room before I could say anything.
I could almost see Mom behind us, cooking up a lecture on manners.
Before I could ask Rose what the problem was, she’d pinned me with a glare.
“That’s Beckett?” she hissed.
“Yes.”
“The boy who asked me out at the wedding.”
So, she did remember. “Yeah.”
“Are you kidding me? I can’t ride with him. It would be too embarrassing.”
“Why?” I crossed my hands over my chest, trying to be nonchalant about it, even though the entire situation had driven me nearly insane over the summer. “It’s not like you called him back or anything... did you?”
Rose’s eyes went wide.
“No, I didn’t call him or text him or anything. He added his number into my phone, but somehow it didn’t save. He didn’t even tell me his name, he just asked if we could hang out sometime and I said okay.”
“And what happened to your number? Didn’t you add it to his phone?”
“Obviously he didn’t use it…” She thought a minute. “Unless he did and I didn’t answer because I didn’t know who it was.”
“Well, then. This car ride shouldn’t be awkward at all.”
“How could it not be awkward? He gave me his number and I never used it. And he probably called me and I didn’t answer. And now he’s here.” She wrung her hands together. “Maybe it’s fine. Maybe he doesn’t even remember me. I mean, Aunt Gina’s wedding was like a million years ago.”
Or maybe he dreams about it every day?
It all made sense now. That’s why Becks gave Rose a smile instead of me this morning. Becks hated me because he thought I blew him off after the wedding, even though we didn’t even recognize each other. He didn’t know he was asking out my sister instead of me. But, the fact remains that he did ask my sister out instead of me. This whole thing left a horrible taste in my mouth.
“If you don’t bring it up, then I won’t,” Rose said. “We’ll be adults and pretend like nothing ever happened. Deal?”
I wish I could do that.
“Yeah,” I said. “Deal.”
“Good. Just, be chill okay.”
I scoffed. “Are you talking to me, or to yourself?”
“I don’t know. A little bit of both.”
My sister was the most confident person I’d ever met, but, sometimes, it was nice to see her this way. Nervous. Unsure. It made her seem a little less superwoman.
We went upstairs and finished getting ready then we walked back downstairs and out the kitchen door. Our parents were standing at the bottom of the steps, blocking our way. Becks stood in front of them, his expression as sour as ever.
“I’m so sorry,” Mom said, rubbing Becks’ arm. “Sometimes the universe just isn’t fair.”
Becks began to say something, then his eyes caught sight of Rose and me, and his mouth slammed shut like a clam shell. He ran a hand through his hair and cleared his throat.
“We’d better get going,” he said, briskly walking back toward the car door. “It was good to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. McAlister.”
Mom and Dad looked at us, then back at Becks.
“Good to see you too, Becks,” Dad said. “And thank you for giving the girls a ride. We consider it a personal favor.”
“And you’re welcomed here anytime,” Mom said. “You don’t even have to call. Just stop by like you used to.”
The thought of Becks just popping up in my living room made me uneasy.
I slipped past my parents and walked down the steps and toward the car. My plan was to get the back seat and pretend to be invisible the entire ride to school. Maybe Becks would forget I was there and just focus on the road and avoiding the pot holes.
But, like Mom said, the universe wasn’t fair.
Correction, my sister wasn’t fair.
She skipped right past me and pulled open the back door, sliding inside. She called goodbye to our parents just before slamming the door shut. I could practically feel her smiling through the tinted glass.
Crap.
Where was Calla? She was my last hope. If she came now, I could make her sit in the front seat while I hung out in back.
I glanced at Calla’s house, but there was no sign of movement. Even her bedroom light was off.
Where was she? I didn’t want to sit next to Becks in the front seat. What if he wanted to talk? What if he didn’t want to talk? Either way, it would be super weird.
I gripped the back door handle with one hand, glancing between Becks and my parents. If I climbed in the back seat, I knew for a fact that my dad would call me out. He hated driving with someone sitting in the back. He said it made him feel like a cab driver. Even if I argued that Calla was on her way, he would say she wasn’t here yet and expect me to sit in the front seat.
I bit my lip, my gaze once again sweeping the street for my friend. She was usually on time. The one morning I needed her to be here, she wasn’t.
I stalled for another minute, tapping my thumb on the back door handle, hoping against hope to hear Calla’s voice. But there was no voice. Just the sound of my parents softly talking and the gentle breeze shaking the lemon tree in the back of the house.
Great.
I swallowed a growl, then opened the front passenger side door and tossed my bookbag inside.
This was going to be the most awkward car ride ever, regardless of if I said something or not. And I couldn’t count on Rose to carry the conversation, since she was too busy hiding in the back seat. Exactly what I planned on doing.
The thief!
I slid into the warm leather seats, waved goodbye to my parents, and closed the door.
Let the awkwardness begin.
A minute later, someone outside the car shouted, then the back door opened and shut.
“You were just going to leave me?” Calla argued, out of breath.
Great timing, Calla. When we got out of this car, I was definitely going to give her a piece of my mind.
“We waited for you,” Rose said.
Well, it wasn’t so much waiting as it was me stalling.
Becks put the car in reverse, and we pulled out of my parents’ driveway and headed to school.
I leaned my head back on the headrest, wondering what the car ride would be like. Would anyone say anything at all? Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe I should start counti
ng the change in my purse for the bus.
“Did you guys hear about Kat Levy?” Calla asked.
I turned in my seat.
“No. What about Kat?”
Calla’s face was somber. Calla was never somber.
Something terrible was on the tip of her tongue. I could feel it. My chest tightened and my breathing shallowed.
“She was in a car accident last night.”
Rose looked up from her phone. “Is she okay?”
Calla shook her head. “She’s in a coma.”
My mouth dropped open. A coma? How could Kat be in a coma? I knew her. I’d spoken to her. She’d talked to me outside my aunt Gina’s wedding. We’d even run together once this summer when Rose was sick with cramps. Kat couldn’t be in a coma. Accidents like that happened to people on the news or to friends of a friend. Not to people I actually knew.
I put one hand on my stomach to quiet the unease that had suddenly settled there.
“But she’s going to be okay, right?” Rose asked, gripping Calla’s arm. “Like, the doctors have it all figured out?”
My mouth worked, struggling to find the words.
Then, another voice spoke up. Becks’ voice.
“Comas don’t work that way. There’s no way to know what’s going to happen. Most times, you just have to wait it out.”
His voice sounded so foreign. So deep and rumbly. I turned to him, but his eyes were still on the road.
“How do you know so much about comas?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Just do, I guess.”
Odd. I was the one with dreams of being a doctor. I knew about comas. All Becks had ever dreamed about was being a Power Ranger. How did he know so much about them? Where exactly had he been when he went away? The only information I’d ever received was that Gramps, Becks’ grandfather who lived in Bloom half the year with Becks and his family, had suddenly gotten sick, and that Becks had gone to Florida to help take care of him. I wasn’t sure how a nine-year-old could help anything, but I never questioned it. After all, I was only nine at the time too.
I put the thought out of my head and turned back to Calla.
“He’s right,” I said.
The full force of what happened to Kat hit me like a tidal wave. She’d gotten into a car accident. She was in a coma. She might never wake up.
It all seemed so surreal.
Kat was in a hospital bed right now. A bed she may never get out of.
We may never joke around in gym class again. I may never root for her in another softball game. How could this happen to Kat? How could this happen to my friend?
Something warm slid down my cheek. I touched the trail it left behind, surprised to find a tear there.
My hands shook, and I clenched the seatbelt.
Calla’s eyes squeezed together, and she looked down at her lap.
“She was so nice, you know. Kind. She was just going to the store to get her mom a few things for dinner and a truck ran into her car.” She looked up at me, her eyes watering now. “Why did it have to be her?”
“She’ll be okay,” I said. But my voice was paper-thin. Almost like I was talking to myself.
“How do you know?” Calla asked.
“Because I have faith.”
I’d always had a deep sense of spirituality. To me, God was a real being, though I wasn’t exactly sure where I stood as far as religion went. My family was part of the local non-denominational church, and my dad’s family Bible was prominently displayed in the living room. Plus, I’d seen enough medical shows to know that miracles happened. Faith wasn’t science or medicine, but in times like these, it helped.
Another tear fell down my cheek and I wiped it away.
“She’s going to need more than faith,” Calla said. “My mom spoke to Mrs. Levy last night. She said the medical bills are going to be insane. She doesn’t know how she’s going to pay for it all.”
“Doesn’t her mom have insurance?” Rose asked.
Calla wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Yeah, I’m sure. I mean, she works at St. Mary’s Hospital, right?”
“Insurance doesn’t cover everything,” Becks said. “Even if it’s great insurance, there’s still some out of pocket cost. Sometimes thousands of dollars.”
I looked back at him again, wondering how he knew that.
“Thousands of dollars?” Rose asked. “Where is Mrs. Levy going to get that kind of money?”
The weight of it all hit me in my gut. Mrs. Levy must be out of her mind with worry. Not just about her daughter, but with how she was going to pay for treatment.
Kat and her mother were good people. They didn’t deserve this. There had to be some way I could help them. But what could I do? I didn’t have any money and I couldn’t get Kat out of her coma. Still, some innate part of me wanted to do something. Anything.
But what? The questions rolled around my head like loose marbles. How could I help Kat? What could I do?
I pondered this throughout the school day.
Surprisingly, the answer hit me right as I slid into my seat in the lunchroom.
Calla and I were at the same lunch table we were before. So was Becks. Though he’d shown some signs of life in the car, his expression was now its usual sourness.
But I wasn’t concerned about that now.
I wanted to help Kat and her mom, and I knew exactly how I was going to do it.
“We’re going to run the fall carnival,” I said.
Calla took a bite of her pasta and chewed thoughtfully.
“Us?” She looked less than impressed.
I nodded, excitement filling my belly.
“Yes, us.”
“You want us to organize and run the fall carnival? Like, you and me?”
Some of my excitement ebbed away and I frowned.
“Yes. Me and you.”
“Didn’t you spend all of last year eating lunch in the library?”
I waved her comment away. “That girl is gone. I’m different now. Confident and ready to do something with my life besides hide.”
She swallowed down her pasta and slid a smile onto her face.
I knew that smile.
That was her ‘this isn’t going to work, but I’m going to go along with it anyway’ smile. I’d seen it before when I suggested we sneak up to Pennsylvania for a Renaissance Festival. The plan was to leave in the middle of the night and take a bus to Scranton, Pennsylvania. We made it a block before I started crying and headed back home.
“If this is what you want to do,” she said in that high-pitched voice that drove me crazy.
“Calla, I can’t do this on my own. I need you to believe in me. Believe in this.”
“Look. If you want to organize the fall carnival, then I will be one hundred percent behind you. I have your back like that. But know that Sherri Shepherdson and her crew are not going to be happy. They’ve run the carnival since freshman year.”
I paused.
Sherri Shepherdson was the star pitcher of the girls’ softball team and noted rival with Rose in just about everything.
When Rose ran for class president, Sherri ran against her.
When Rose was nominated for Homecoming Queen, so was Sherri.
When Rose liked a boy, odds were Sherri liked him too.
And, because Rose was my sister, and Sherri hated Rose, it went without saying that Sherri hated me too. Though I’d had no reason to butt horns with her until now.
A chill rushed through me. I was the queen of non-conflict. The thought of going up against Sherri for anything made me want to hide under the lunch table.
But that was Old Lily. I was New Lily now. And New Lily had a purpose. New Lily didn’t hide.
I swallowed my fear and thought of Kat. That poor girl deserved to have someone do something for her. She didn’t deserve to live the rest of her life paying medical bills.
“Maybe she can work with us,” I said. “Like a collaboration.”
Calla laughed out l
oud. “You want Sherri to work with you? Sherri, your sister’s archrival? Good luck with that. If I were you, I’d go talk to the principal first and get the go ahead. We can deal with the fallout later.”
My eyes widened. When my friend was right, she was right.
“Let’s go.”
“Wait. Right now?”
“Yes, right now.”
A piece of pasta fell out of Calla’s mouth. “But—”
“We’ll go talk to Principal Davies right now and ask him to run the carnival. We’ll deal with whatever happens later.”
“But... I didn’t mean—”
I grabbed Calla’s hand. “Come on, before lunch is over.”
And before I lost my nerve.
We left our trays on the table and weaved our way through the crowd and out the door.
We found Principal Davies standing outside of his office, scrolling through his cell phone. He was a balding, middle-aged man with kind eyes and an ever-present smile.
“Hello, ladies.”
“Hi, Mr. Davies,” Calla and I said together.
Sweat gathered under my armpits, and my stomach was in knots.
Mr. Davies was nice, but I was still nervous asking him for such a big responsibility. Especially since this had been someone else’s job for the last three years.
My throat turned thick and Old Lily rushed to the forefront of my mind.
You can’t do this, she said. Look at yourself. You can’t even form a complete sentence. What makes you think you can run a carnival?
Mr. Davies looked at his cell phone, then back at us.
“Something I can help you with?” he asked.
Calla elbowed me hard in the side, bringing me back to reality.
I took a deep breath, shoving Old Lily as far down as I could.
If I could just get the first word out...
“Mr. Davies, we’d like to run the fall carnival this year.”
The words came out in one long, breathless sentence.
The look of surprise on the principal’s face was almost laughable.
“You want to run the fall carnival?” he asked.
It was meant to be a simple question, but I could hear the disbelief in his voice. It was the same tone Calla had used earlier. He didn’t believe I could do this.
Honestly, I didn’t believe I could do this. But I had to do something for Kat, and this was the best thing I could think of.