Part 26 (2/2)

#thingsIthoughtweretrue A horn blasts. Amy's bright yellow Mazda is parked on the oppo- site side of the road from Bob White's car. In this neighbor- hood, it looks like a kiddie b.u.mper car from the amus.e.m.e.nt park.

I hurry down the pebbled walk. The front driver's window is unrolled. Adam's arm is resting on it. His gla.s.ses are slipping down his nose a little. He looks like a complete and total nerd, and he's exactly what I didn't know I needed. But I do.

I run across the street toward the car.

”Hey,” he says as I get closer.

”What're you doing here?”

”Thought you might need backup,” he says.

I look at the pa.s.senger seat and peer into the back. ”Where's Amy?” I walk around to the pa.s.senger door and climb inside the car. It still smells like Cheezies.

”I asked Amy if I could take the car and go see my girlfriend,” he says. ”I lied.”

”What're you doing here?”

sixteenthings.indd 177 9/9/13 2:21 PM.

J a n e t G u r t l e r He glances down at his crotch. My eyes follow his. His phone is in his lap. Thank G.o.d. ”I was worried about you. And I saw the tweet about your dad a second ago.”

There's a loud honking in the sky. I glance up at a flock of Canada geese flying in the sky. In a V formation. I watch them, envious of their ability to fly wherever they want to go. I wonder if birds stick with their families or if the parents abandon them. How do they decide who leads?

”What happened?” he asks softly.

I blink and forget the birds, turning back to Adam. I sigh. ”What are you doing here?” I repeat.

He lifts his shoulder and gazes straight into my eyes. ”This is a big deal. Meeting your...father for the first time.” He reaches for my hand, but I pull away and tuck it in my lap and turn my head. It's dark outside. Finally. It's been one of the longest days of my life.

I bite my lip. ”Why did you come alone? Where's Amy?”

”I thought Amy might be, I don't know, a distraction.” He pushes up his gla.s.ses. ”She's in the common room at the hostel. She made friends with two old ladies from England. When I left, they were talking about tea. I thought you might, you know...need someone.

Either way it went.” He blinks, and his eyes are round and s.h.i.+ne with sympathy. He lifts a shoulder unapologetically.

I sigh and it's so big and so loud that it seems to suck up all the air in the car. I open up my window a little, and a night breeze blows in. Bob White's house looks different in the dark. The big, stupid house of the man who didn't even know I existed until a few 178.

sixteenthings.indd 178 9/9/13 2:21 PM.

1 6 t h i n g s i t h o u g h t w e r e t r u e minutes ago. I imagine how much it must suck for him and try to think how it would make me feel. But it's hard. I feel so alone.

”What about your girlfriend?” I ask Adam. ”You came all this way for her, didn't you?” I half wish a boy would come and rescue me. I try not to wish it were him.

He lifts his chin. ”What happened with your dad?”

”Adam,” I repeat. ”What about your girlfriend?” It suddenly has more importance than it should. Even in the darkness of the car, lit only by the outside streetlights, I can tell his cheeks are red.

”Well.” He glances at me and then grins. ”Technically, I don't really have a girlfriend anymore. If you must know the truth, she dumped me.”

”She dumped you? When did you talk to her?” My knee bounces up and down, up and down. A tiny bit of happy leaks into the puddle of sad and confusion swirling inside me.

”Um. At the end of school. She's actually dating some guy who's a shoo- in for Stanford Medical now.”

I stare at him. ”You haven't had a girlfriend all summer? You've been pretending?” I have an urge to laugh- and then to punch him hard because I'm so sick of lies.

”Well, it sounds worse when you say it like that. It was just easier to pretend to have a girlfriend at work. Some girls at work are super stalky. Like Amy.” He snorts, but when I narrow my eyes, he stops.

I stay silent, my lips pursed, waiting for more. I'm good at silent treatments, taught by a champion.

”But you told me you had a girlfriend at the hospital.”

He looks out his window and clears his throat. ”That's because 179.

sixteenthings.indd 179 9/9/13 2:21 PM.

J a n e t G u r t l e r I, um...I was embarra.s.sed. You were all worried about your mom and I was acting all weird, so I blurted out the fake girlfriend thing.

It was dumb, I know...” He stops and doesn't look at me.

I can't believe I'm sitting in front of my father's fancy house, talking about this. It's hard not to laugh. It's also hard not to be a teeny bit happy, despite everything.

”You made up a girlfriend?” I'd much rather talk about this than my dad.

”I may have exaggerated my girlfriend status by a few months but she's real. We broke up.” He lifts a shoulder and meets my gaze. ”It seemed like a good idea at the time. Then it got too awkward to admit the truth.”

I sigh. ”I'm sorry. It's not like I've never done anything stupid.”

Adam doesn't say anything.

I stare at the house Bob lives in. On the outside, it's so beautiful.

”He didn't even know about me,” I say quietly. ”My dad. As in...

my mom never told him she was pregnant. Eighteen years ago.

And nothing since. He had no idea.”

Adam gasps. ”No way.”

”Yup.”

”That's really, really crazy.”

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