Page 50 of Searching for Beautiful
I wrinkle my nose. “Umm, thanks? I think. ”
We both giggle. She pulls up another chair and puts her feet on it like she did last time. Then, thankfully, she changes the subject. “I know. I’m probably milking it a little, but I swear, my feet do kill me. ”
“That’s okay. You have a good excuse. ” All her clothes look new. She’s wearing long sleeves and stretch pants under a skirt. “Where do you live?” I ask.
“A foster couple took me in. Can’t have kids of their own. I don’t get why that makes them want to deal with a pregnant teenager, but since I have nowhere else to go, it works. They eye me like a friggin’ hawk, though. I guess they don’t get that I can take care of myself. ”
She shouldn’t want to take care of herself. I used to think the same thing. Not that my parents weren’t there for me or anything, but I just sort of thought I had all the answers. If that were true, Jason wouldn’t have gotten to me. “Will they get your baby?”
“What? No. That would just be creepy. I couldn’t live with the person who’d soon be a mother to my daughter. It would be too hard. ”
My heart jumps at that. “It’s a girl?”
“Yeah…” She almost sounds a little sad about that. “We just found out not too long ago. ”
The urge to take away some of her unexplained sadness rolls through me. “I was adopted. I got picked by the best mom in the world. My dad, too. ” Then it’s like some of her sadness kind of leaks through to me. This ache fills the pit of my stomach for how much I miss my dad.
We live in the same house, but I miss him so much.
“Really?”
“Yeah. ”
“Good. ” She looks down at her stomach. “I want her to be happy, ya know? I know who she’s going to and they seem like good people, but you just never know. ”
Without even thinking about it, I reach over and touch Emery’s hand. “She’ll be happy. I know it. ”
The words pulse through me. Ride on my heartbeats and swim through my veins. I want to be happy again, too.
“Thanks. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m so much more emotional than I used to be,” Emery replies.
Just then, Christian steps up beside us. “You ready to go, Bryntastic?”
I glance at Emery.
“See ya later,” she says and then mouths, So hot!
Shaking my head, I say, “It’s not like that. ” I stand up and again don’t let myself hesitate before saying, “Maybe we can hang out sometime? Like…do something. I don’t know what, but—”
“That’d be cool. ”
“Okay, what’s your number?”
I gasp when Emery shoots out of her chair and hugs me. Her arms wrap around me so tightly, it’s hard to breathe. It takes me a second, but then I hug her back. As we stand there, I realize she’s not as strong as I thought. She needs people, craves love the same way I do. The way she hugs me shows that.
Once we unravel from each other, we exchange phone numbers. It’s not until we get out the door that Christian says anything. “I see her now. ”
I stop and look at him. “Um, see who?”
“You. The girl I used to know. ”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Now
For the next week, Christian and I rota
te who drives to school each day. We eat lunch in the hallway together. I wonder if he’d rather be with everyone else, but he seems okay, sitting on the ground, eating gummy bears and playing his guitar.
