One Lonely Degree

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by C. K. Kelly Martin


  Jersy takes a couple of seconds to answer. “Not if you don’t want to,” he says slowly. “We can talk.”

  “Yeah?” I let myself breathe.

  “Yeah,” he repeats, and he sounds like he means it. I haven’t had an excuse to take a good look at him in so long that my mind has to make up for it. I picture him in jeans and the same white T-shirt he was wearing earlier. He’s not frowning but not smiling either. Maybe he doesn’t know what to think. “So what happened with your dad?” he asks.

  I tell him about going to the cottage with my father, how his new apartment is nice but feels small with the three of us there, and that I’m not really mad at him for leaving anymore. My words feel clunky, like I’m just starting to remember how to talk to him. Jersy says it’s cool that things are starting to work out, and I ask him how the rest of his summer was. I feel bad just using the words “the rest.” They make me think about that moment at my door when he realized that I wasn’t going to change my mind. Jersy sounds okay, though. He says that he spent the last week of summer in Kingston with his friends. They saw something weird in the sky while hanging out in his friend’s backyard late one night, and he asks if I believe in UFOs.

  “I think there probably are some real ones, but I bet most of them are fake.” It’s so good to be talking to him again, about anything, that I’d stay on the phone spinning UFO theories with him all night if he wanted.

  “Or experimental military planes the government doesn’t want us to know about,” Jersy goes. I open my mouth to agree, but he says, “Shit. My cell’s beeping a low-battery warning. Hang on, I have the charger somewhere …”

  I picture him rushing around his room, searching under his bed and pushing crap around his desk in the hope of un covering his missing charger. He told me a long time ago that he’s always losing things, and I wonder if that’s because of his insomnia (or whatever he wants to call it) or if it’s just how things are.

  I know our conversation has to end sometime and that Jersy probably won’t find his charger before his cell flatlines. My brain has been so consumed with the immediate situation between Audrey, Jersy, and me that I haven’t projected beyond our phone call, and even if I had, I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to predict what will happen to us after we’re disconnected. I haven’t been able to predict anything up until now. Why should this be any different? Adam Porter, my parents’ breakup, Jersy, Nishani, Record Store Guy laying his hand along my forehead—for better or for worse it’s all been a big surprise, and I brace myself for a dial tone, any second now …

  I can’t hear anything from the phone. Maybe it’s already happened and I’m just listening to dead air. The silence sounds claustrophobic, but I don’t hang up just yet. I hunch over more and spread my left hand visor-like over my eyebrows, feeling the separation anxiety in advance of the dial tone.

  One-one thousand. Hush.

  Two-one thousand. Hush. Hush.

  Three-one thousand. Hush, hush, hush.

  “Got it!” Jersy declares triumphantly. “You still there, Finn?”

  I wonder if he can feel the weight of my smile over the phone line. My gaze lands on Samsam stretched out beside my bed. His paws are twitching joyfully in his sleep, like he’s dreaming he’s sprinting after squirrels with no one to stop him. The sight makes me smile deeper still.

  “Still here,” I confirm. I hug my knees, feeling so good that I almost want to laugh.

  Yes, Jersy, I’m most definitely still here.

  lives in the greater Toronto area with her husband. You can visit her Web site and blog at

  www.ckkellymartin.com.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2009 by Carolyn Martin

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/teens

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at www.randomhouse.com/teachers

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Martin, C. K. Kelly.

  One lonely degree / by C. K. Kelly Martin. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: When fifteen-year-old Finn’s world falls apart after a violent sexual encounter, the only person she can talk to is her best friend, Audrey, until beautiful boy Jersy moves back to town and both girls develop feelings for him that threaten to destroy their friendship.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-85392-0

  [1. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 2. Coming of Age—Fiction. 3. Date rape—Fiction. 4. Love—Fiction. 5. Friendship—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.M3644On 2009

  [Fic]—dc22

  2008012552

  v3.0

  Random House Children’s Books supports the

  First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Other Books By This Author

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Other Books By This Author

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  About the Author

  Copyright

 

 

 


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