Pieces
Page 34
That made it sound like they barely got along, which was a huge lie. The two of them had become friends since Ollie had asked Rae to move into the apartment she’d taken around the corner from her tech college. Ollie’s dad just tried not to twitch at the fact that she’d chosen part-time tech college and part-time work while she figured out what she wanted to do.
Ollie grabbed the fresh turkey out of the bag and eyed it with a fortifying breath.
The original plan had been to skip the traditional turkey. Pulling off that dish had seemed beyond them. But Ollie, her jaw set, had decided she was going to do it. Somehow.
Carmen had never even cooked a chicken, let alone a turkey. But Ollie had looked it up on the Internet and swore she could do it. Carmen had her doubts, but she’d never say that.
They stumbled around the small kitchen, Carmen focusing on the vegetables and Ollie on the meat. She was painting a brush over it, and Carmen wanted to laugh at how she did it with a flourish, like she’d seen her do with a canvas under her hands.
Carmen loved to watch Ollie create. She’d taken to tall canvases lately, a pallet knife and chunky lines casting colors over a sketched design. She’d pull a scarf over her hair, curls spilling out the end, and Carmen would smile to watch her so focused. Ollie was so often sporadic, moving from one thing to another, her ideas all over the place. But once art came into it, her concentration was surprising, deep. Moving to watch.
Her work got attention at the tech college.
She still filled sketchbooks, though. Carmen had another one of Ollie’s now. She kept the two of them next to her bed, and sometimes at night she traced her fingers over the lines, unable to believe how Ollie saw the world. Saw Carmen.
With potatoes boiling on the stove and gravy with lumps as big as pennies next to it, Carmen finally walked over to the TV and switched it off.
Mattie didn’t even bother protesting. “What do I have to do?” Resignation was thick in his voice.
“Vacuum and set the table and the coffee table—we’re going to be eating spread out—we have no room. Also, make sure the tree lights are on, and find a good Christmas playlist.”
“I vacuumed last week.” Whining was never his strong suit.
“Cool. And you can vacuum now too.”
Muttering, he pulled himself off the couch.
“Take the blanket.”
He rolled his eyes and dragged it behind him to his room.
“Enjoy that in a few years,” Ollie called from the kitchen.
“Yeah, har har.”
Eventually, they had food laid out that was definitely going to be cold by the time everyone ate, and the room filled up with people. The lights flashed on the Christmas tree, and Mattie kept fiddling with the settings so they went off like a rave. Everyone pretended the turkey tasted good, even though parts of it were so dry that chewing it was like eating dust.
Rae looked a little lost without Sara and sat next to Ollie on the sofa, shoveling in sweet potato. Dex, Jia, and Ollie’s dad sat at the table, Dex poking Mattie into agreeing to some tutoring. Twice a week they all sparred these days—more when they could—and Carmen had promised Mattie that next year she would get him into karate classes again. Money was tight, though, with having to work a little less while doing her GED courses. But Ollie’s dad had convinced her it was important and that she’d be able to find a job that paid a little more if she had some qualifications behind her.
When they all finished eating, someone knocked on the door, and Carmen opened it, mouth dropping open at who she saw.
“Sara!”
The shout came from behind her, and then Ollie was bowling past her and throwing her arms around Sara while Rae stood holding plates, frozen.
“Hey,” Sara said from over Ollie’s shoulder.
“Hey,” Rae replied, the way her lips quirked up betraying her.
“Surprise.”
They spent the entire night hovering near each other—more reserved with each other than Ollie and Carmen, whose hands were always touching some part of the other when they could—but steady. The year managing long-distance, Carmen noticed, had barely seemed to shake them.
Ollie glowed. She missed her friend all the time, Carmen knew. They skyped and messaged. But having Sara near her again lit Ollie up.
Gifts were handed out, most going to Mattie. Eventually, he unwrapped a PlayStation from Ollie’s dad and fell over himself trying to say thank you. He kept eyeing the TV like he wanted to set it up then and there, but Carmen’s stink eye quickly put a stop to that. By nine, everyone was rolling around half-asleep, hands on rounded bellies.
It was as perfect a time as any for what Carmen wanted to do.
Carmen had dreaded doing this formally, but she had only just been told yesterday, and she had wanted to talk it over with Mattie before telling everyone. And each person there, well, they deserved to know. They’d all played a role, and sometimes, on nights when everything felt too scary and overwhelming and she lay there thinking too much, she wondered where she’d be without any of them.
She stood in front of the fake tree, crammed next to the TV and bought in a secondhand store. Ollie and Mattie had covered it with old aluminum cans she’d turned into art and Mattie had butchered. The metal reflected the blinking lights along the walls. She used Mattie in front of her as a barrier, resting her hands against his chest. He leaned into her as she did. Slowly, everyone stopped talking and stared at her.
Heat crept into her cheeks and she swallowed hard. Ollie smiled at her from the sofa, pressed against her dad’s shoulder.
“So, uh, thanks, everyone, for coming.”
“Thanks for the food!” Deon said.
“Yeah, it was an…adventure.” Dex snorted, and Jia slapped his arm.
Carmen let herself smile at that, and some of her nervousness melted away. “I just, I was hoping to be able to let you all know this when I asked you to come over. But, ah, now I know for sure.”
Everyone blinked at her, except Ollie, who just kept smiling because she knew. “Yesterday, Mattie’s caseworker came, and, well, it’s been a year, and—”
“And that weird year is over,” Mattie interrupted, “and I’m definitely staying with Carmen.” He tilted his face up, the back of his head tucked against her neck—so different than the way he’d done it when he was tiny, when his head had rested against the backs of her knees, then her thighs, then her stomach. He’d grown so much.
Even as Carmen thought that, with a pang in her chest, the room erupted into noise and cheers. They all stood to hug Mattie and her, and Mattie stayed with his arm close to hers, their heat swapping between each other like it would when they used to share a bed.
From the sofa, Ollie stared up at her, eyes a sky. She smiled, achingly wide, and Carmen matched it.
All the pieces of her life in one room, making up their own constellation.
About G Benson
Benson spent her childhood wrapped up in any book she could get her hands on and—as her mother likes to tell people at parties—even found a way to read in the shower. Moving on from writing bad poetry (thankfully) she started to write stories. About anything and everything. Tearing her from her laptop is a fairly difficult feat, though if you come bearing coffee you have a good chance.
When not writing or reading, she’s got her butt firmly on a train or plane to see the big wide world. Originally from Australia, she currently lives in Spain, speaking terrible Spanish and going on as many trips to new places as she can, budget permitting. This means she mostly walks around the city she lives in.
CONNECT WITH G BENSON
Website: www.g-benson.com
E-Mail: gbensonauthor@gmail.com
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When Finn gets involved in a new community project, she’s forced to question where her priorities lie at school. Meanwhile, her dad has moved interstate, her mother is miserable, and her home feels like a ghost town.
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Pieces
© 2017 by G Benson
ISBN (mobi): 978-3-95533-806-0
ISBN (epub): 978-3-95533-807-7
Also available as paperback.
Published by Ylva Publishing, legal entity of Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Owner: Astrid Ohletz
Am Kirschgarten 2
65830 Kriftel
Germany
www.ylva-publishing.com
First edition: 2017
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Credits
Edited by Astrid Ohletz and Michelle Aguilar
Proofread by Paulette Callen
Cover Design by Adam Llyod
Print Layout by Streetlight Graphics