by Jo Ramsey
I didn’t bother responding. It didn’t matter to me if they liked me or not, as long as they didn’t hassle me. At least that was what I wanted to believe. And Jonathan’s opinion of Noah didn’t mean anything other than that Jonathan was a jerk.
Brad walked over to me. “You actually went to Noah Silver’s house?”
“He invited me.” Why is me going to Noah’s such a big deal? I couldn’t have been the first person to go to that house. Noah had said his father didn’t like him having company, but surely at some point since they’d owned the place other neighbors had been there. Probably even some of the people standing around me.
“Wow. He told us his father won’t let him have anyone over. They don’t even, like, entertain or anything when they’re here.” Brad didn’t sound too happy. “Maybe he just thinks he’s too good for the rest of us.”
I wasn’t sure whether Brad meant Noah or his father. It wasn’t worth asking. “His father didn’t want me there either.”
“Yeah, but he let you in.” Brad shrugged. “Whatever. Noah’s weird anyway. Whenever I’ve tried to talk to him, he acts like I’m interrogating him. So if you want to hang out with him, more power to you. Just remember that Noah’s only here once or twice a year. If you hang out with him too much when he’s here, you might not have anyone to hang out with the rest of the time. Don’t forget about us.”
I didn’t like threats. Especially from someone who didn’t usually pay much attention to me anyway. And I definitely didn’t like having someone who barely acted like a friend tell me who I could or couldn’t be friends with. “If that’s how you feel, it probably wouldn’t be much of a loss. I’ve tried hanging out with you guys. Seems to me like none of you can be bothered, so why should I?”
“You’re an asshole, you know that?” He walked away before I had a chance to answer.
Ticking off Brad didn’t exactly make me feel good, but the bus showed up before I had time to apologize. I would have to try to catch up with him at school to talk to him. He’d get over it anyway. I hadn’t insulted him any more than he’d insulted me.
School that day was boring as heck, as usual, except for the occasional whispers when I walked past people. I caught Noah’s name a few times. Apparently word traveled fast, which was typical for high school, especially one that small. Since the school took kids from a few towns besides Wellfleet, most of them probably hadn’t even heard of Noah before now, but they all seemed fascinated to find out I’d gone to his house.
By the end of the day, I was seriously irked about the whole thing. None of them even really knew Noah—or me, for that matter—so who were they to judge whether I should be hanging out with him or not?
My bus dropped me off at the same time as Cece’s van stopped at the corner. I didn’t see Mom anywhere, which was weird. She always met Cece’s van. Legally, the driver couldn’t let Cece off without an adult there to take responsibility. He made no move to open the van door. Cece pressed her hand against the window, but I couldn’t guess whether she saw me.
“Why’s your sister just sitting there?” Brad asked behind me.
I shrugged. “My mother’s supposed to meet her. Guess I’m going to have to take her home.” I was a little surprised that he’d said anything to me since he hadn’t spoken to me all day at school. I didn’t mind talking to him about Cece. He and his family, like Sarah’s, had shown up to welcome us our first day in the neighborhood, so he knew about my sister.
“You know, Cece doesn’t exactly help you make friends around here.”
I turned to glare at him. “My sister has autism. She can’t help it, and neither can I. If people have a problem with that, it’s their problem, and I wouldn’t want to have them for friends anyway.”
“That isn’t what I mean.” He hesitated. “It isn’t about Cece. It’s more about how your parents act when it comes to her. My parents invited your family over a few times. Every time, your mother said no because according to her, my family wouldn’t know how to deal with your sister. Sarah’s mom said the same thing happened when she invited you guys over. So everyone decided to give up.”
“Seriously?” I couldn’t believe Mom would say something like that to the neighbors. In our old town, we’d gone to dinner or other activities with our neighbors all the time. Mom had complained about moving to Wellfleet because she wouldn’t know anyone, but if Brad was telling the truth, she’d made sure no one wanted to know us.
Then again, in our old town, everyone who invited us anywhere knew Cece and understood why she had the problems she had. Here, we would have had to go through a whole bunch of explanations. Maybe Mom just hadn’t wanted to deal with that.
“Yeah. I thought you knew that.” Brad gave me a tentative grin. “We’re pretty friendly around here. Your parents don’t seem to want to meet anyone, and you don’t hang around with us much, so we don’t know what to think. You guys have been here since August, and most of us still don’t know you.”
“My mother makes me take care of Cece sometimes. Um, just between you and me.” He’d better keep his mouth shut. The last thing I wanted was for someone to tell Dad I had to take care of Cece. That would only give him and Mom something else to fight about. “I don’t always have to, though, and I kind of wondered if something was wrong with me because no one asked me to come over or anything.”
“Miscommunication is a wonderful thing.” He chuckled. “Yeah, so you’d better get your sister, because the driver’s looking pissed. Wednesday night, come over to my house. A few of us are going to have pizza and watch that new movie that’s coming out on DVD tomorrow. You know the one I mean?”
“Yeah.” Yet another movie about vampires. Or zombies. Maybe both. I hadn’t paid a whole lot of attention to the description. Some people were so excited about it they’d fought each other for tickets when it was in theaters. I didn’t care about seeing the movie, but it would be nice to hang out with other people for a while.
“Good. See you tomorrow.”
He headed up the road toward his house, and I went over to the van. The driver tapped his finger on the steering wheel and glared at me. “You want something?”
I’d never been the one to put Cece on the van or get her off, but I would have thought the driver had at least seen me, especially before he stopped driving all the way to the house. He should have known who I was. “I’m Cece—Cecelia’s brother. My mother got….” My mind raced to find an excuse. “She’s stuck in traffic. She called and asked me to pick up my sister.”
He turned to Cece, who was sitting in the seat behind him staring at absolutely nothing in front of her. “Is this your brother?” he asked her like he expected an answer.
To my surprise, Cece actually focused her gaze on me. “Chris,” she said.
“Hi, kiddo.” I looked at the driver again. “So she’s all set. Sorry you had to wait.”
“I’m supposed to release her to one of your parents.” He picked up a clipboard from the front passenger seat and skimmed the attached piece of paper. “What’s your name?”
“Chris Talberman.” Great. It hadn’t even occurred to me that they might have a list of who was allowed to pick up Cece. It made sense. They had to keep her safe, but if I wasn’t on that list and Mom didn’t show up, I had no clue what the driver would do.
“Your name isn’t on here.” He tossed the clipboard back onto the seat. “I’m not supposed to let anyone except your mother or father take her.”
“Okay.” My temper rose, and I bit my lip so I wouldn’t yell at the guy. I’d told him who I was, Cece obviously recognized me, and my parents weren’t here. He couldn’t just keep Cece on the van forever. “So you plan on sitting here waiting for my mother? Because she wasn’t sure when she’d be home.”
He let out a loud, exasperated breath. “Fine. I’d better call the school and sort this out.”
He took a cell phone out of his jacket pocket. Cece started kicking the back of his seat. He acted like he didn’t notice. I
hoped whoever the driver talked to would tell him to let me take my sister, because otherwise she was heading for a full-fledged tantrum. She hated having to sit still, and the ride from her school to home was almost an hour as it was. She’d already been sitting there way too long.
The driver asked whoever answered the phone if he should allow me to take Cece. He didn’t appear pleased about the answer. When he explained that my mother wasn’t there, he looked happier with whatever the person on the other end said. He hung up and put the phone back in his pocket. “Okay. They checked her records in the office and your name’s on those. So I’m going to let you take her this once. You make sure your mother knows that she either needs to add your name to my list, or she needs to be here when she’s supposed to be.”
I nodded. “I’ll tell her. Thanks.”
He unbuckled Cece’s seat belt, and my sister slid out of the van. I caught her arm to keep her from taking off running up the road. The driver handed me her backpack and closed the van door in my face.
I slung Cece’s backpack onto my shoulder on top of my own. Fortunately, hers didn’t weigh much. Still holding her arm, I started walking up our road. She dragged her feet for a second, then walked with me.
“I wonder where Mom is,” I said. She’d never missed picking up Cece, even when she was sick.
Cece didn’t answer, of course.
When we reached the cottage, Mom’s car wasn’t in the driveway. That wasn’t like her at all. She usually waited until after Cece and I’d been home for an hour or so before she decided she had to go run her errands. If she’d ever gone out while Cece and I were at school, she’d always been home in time to get Cece off the van.
I took my phone out of my jeans pocket. No missed calls, no texts, nothing. She hadn’t even bothered letting me know she wouldn’t be home. Which might have been a huge problem if the van driver hadn’t ended up letting me have Cece.
Cece pulled against my grip. I unlocked the door, which only had the regular lock engaged, and let us into the house. The second we were in, I locked the deadbolt. I didn’t think she’d try to escape, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
I went into the kitchen and checked the landline phone, but it didn’t show any new voice mails. Mom hadn’t left any notes on the counter or anything to indicate where she’d gone or when she’d be back.
“Nack,” Cece said.
“Right.” I’d almost forgotten that she always had a snack as soon as she came home from school. “Sit at the table, and I’ll bring your snack to you.”
She did what I said, and I took a juice box and a tiny plastic container of cut-up apples out of the fridge. I wasn’t sure if that was what Mom had planned to give her, but it was quick and easy, and Cece would probably eat it.
I grabbed a sports drink for myself and went to the table. When I set the plastic container in front of Cece, she struggled with it for a moment, then held it out to me. I’d forgotten she didn’t know how to open those containers by herself.
I opened it and gave it back to her. “Eat your snack,” I said. I glanced at her schedule to see what was supposed to happen after snack. Even though Mom sometimes left me alone with Cece in the afternoons, she always gave Cece her snack and did some other stuff with her first. I didn’t know this part of the schedule well at all, and that meant I had to learn fast or Cece would be really upset.
“You’re supposed to exercise after this,” I said to her. “What’s that mean?”
Of course she didn’t tell me. I took out my phone again and scrolled through my contacts list to Mom’s number. Her phone rang four times before voice mail kicked in. I hung up without leaving a message, then called again. The same thing happened.
This time, I decided to leave a voice mail. Hopefully she’d call back as soon as she heard it. “Mom, it’s Chris. Where are you? Cece and I are both home and having snack, and I’m not sure what to do next. Please call me.”
I hung up again and set the phone on the table. It didn’t ring.
Someone knocked on the door. Hoping it would be Mom, I jumped up and ran to answer.
Noah stood on the deck, shifting from one foot to the other. He gave me a tentative grin. “Hi. Can I come in?”
I hesitated. I wasn’t supposed to have company when I was watching Cece. On the other hand, Mom wasn’t supposed to leave me alone with Cece without letting me know, and having someone there with me might make things a little easier. At least if Cece had one of her issues, someone would be there to back me up. “Yeah, come on in. I’m babysitting my sister, so I don’t know how much fun this will be.”
“Hanging out with you will be fun no matter what.” His smile grew and sent a warm shiver through me.
He entered, and I locked the door behind him. At the table, Cece stared, then slid out of her chair and crouched on the floor under the table. She didn’t like strangers. I’d hoped she would remember Noah from the day of the dolphins, but she probably hadn’t even noticed him when he’d stopped her.
“Cece.” I crawled under the table on my hands and knees and stopped beside her. “That’s Noah. He’s my friend, and he’s going to visit us for a little while. He can exercise with us, okay?”
She looked at me with wide eyes and shook her head.
“It’s okay,” I assured her. “He isn’t a stranger. He’s my friend, and he helped you the other day, remember?”
Cece gave Noah a suspicious look and stayed put. I gave up. She wasn’t hurting anything under the table, and eventually she’d come out. She always did. She acted the same way even when relatives visited.
“Is she okay?” Noah asked.
“Yeah, just shy.” I scooted out from under the table and stood. “Want a soda or anything? Our fridge isn’t as full as yours, but we have stuff.”
I realized immediately that I sounded like a jackass. Noah’s face fell, and then he forced another smile. “I’d like some soda. Thanks.”
We took our sodas and sat on the couch. I turned on one of the cable music channels, which was actually showing music videos for once, and we sat back to listen.
“Are your parents at work?” Noah asked.
I shook my head. “Dad is. I don’t know where my mother is. She’s usually here when we get home from school.”
“Do you think something’s wrong?”
I didn’t want to deal with questions I couldn’t answer. I was already worried. I didn’t need Noah giving me more things to worry about. “I don’t know,” I snapped. “It isn’t my day to keep track of her. She’s probably at the store or something.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to tick you off.” He drank some of his soda and stared at the TV.
Great. So we’d gone back to silence. It felt just as awkward as it had at his house, and I had no idea what to say to break it. Noah and I didn’t have anything in common as far as I knew. On the other hand, I hadn’t asked him what he was interested in, so I didn’t know for sure.
Even though his questions and the silence bugged me, I was glad he’d come over. Even if we didn’t say another word to each other, at least I had someone else there with me.
I glanced over my shoulder to check on Cece. She was still on the floor but had come out from under the table. Now she sat on the floor beside her chair, rocking a little bit. I decided to leave her alone for a few minutes more. The rocking showed me that she still wasn’t happy about Noah being there, and I didn’t want to set her off.
“I can’t stay long,” Noah said. “My father will want me home.”
“Why’d you come over?” I figured maybe if I threw a question at him, he might answer it. At least it would be payback for all the questions he’d been asking.
He shrugged. “I kind of liked hanging out with you the other day, and I wanted to see you. Should I have stayed away?”
“I don’t mind you being here.” If Cece hadn’t been sitting there staring at us, I probably would have moved a little closer to him. He’d liked hanging out with me. He’d
wanted to see me. Maybe he was just lonely. It sure made sense that he would be, judging from what he’d told me. But maybe that wasn’t his only reason.
With my sister in the room, I couldn’t even ask.
“Sorry it’s kind of boring here,” I said. “I have to keep an eye on my sister until Mom comes home.”
“I’m not bored.” He smiled. It lit up his whole face. “I told you, I like hanging out with you. It’s a whole lot better than sitting at home doing schoolwork on my computer, believe me. And better than having Dad bugging me all the time.”
“Where’s your mom?” I hadn’t seen her at all when I’d been at his house. He’d mentioned her, so I knew she existed, but I wasn’t sure if she’d come with Noah and his father.
“She had to go to LA for a few days to take care of something,” he replied. “Dad and I are ‘batching’ it.” He made air quotes with his fingers. “Mom should be here tomorrow, I think. She likes coming here because it’s so peaceful, so I know she won’t stay in LA long.”
“Doesn’t sound like you have much fun with just your dad.”
Noah’s face clouded over like a summer thunderstorm and his eyes narrowed. He stood and glared down at me. “You don’t know anything about me and my dad.”
“No, I don’t.” I glanced at Cece, who fortunately didn’t seem to notice that Noah was angry. “Just that you’ve said he hovers a lot and that he doesn’t let you have friends. So I figured you didn’t like being alone with him without your mom. Sorry if I was wrong.”
He took a deep breath and sat down again. “Sorry. People say stuff about my dad sometimes. It bugs me, because none of them know him. You’re right. It isn’t a lot of fun. He works no matter where we are, and he’s busy. He doesn’t have a lot of time to spend with me.”
That was almost the opposite of what he’d said a couple minutes earlier. I didn’t call him on the contradiction. The last thing I wanted to do was tick him off again.
The phone rang—the house phone, not my cell—and I hurried to answer it. “Mom?”
“Why would it be your mother?” Dad asked. “She’s there with you, isn’t she?” His voice was hard, like he already knew the answer.