Infinite (Strange and Beautiful, Book 1) (23 page)

As
I walked out of the kitchen and into the hallway, I heard Skylar mutter, “Smart
ass.”

Amused,
I went upstairs to my room. I knew it would be a while before dinner since Mom
hadn’t made it home yet. I’d already finished my homework, so I decided to
read.

After
finishing
The Da Vinci Code
, I was looking for something new to read.
After mentioning that to Jackson on instant messenger, he suggested
The
Client
by John Grisham.

“I
read it a few years back. It was a pretty good mystery or thriller,” he
commented.

His
recommendations hadn’t led me astray yet, so I picked it up on Monday when I
went to the library with Tierney and Tegan.

“You
need to start returning the favor,” Jackson teased. “I’m in need of some
suggestions myself.”

I
promised him I’d think of something, but my mind had been oddly blank every
time I considered book titles. It made me oddly nervous. What if he didn’t like
my suggestions?

I
sunk into my window seat that overlooked the backyard, deciding I’d save book
suggestions for later. I took a moment to really look out the window. I could
see my reading tree plainly below.

I
missed my favorite reading spot, but it was already getting dark, and it was much
too cold to sit outside and read now. Even though my room was the smallest of
the four bedrooms and my parents and Skylar both had balconies leading out from
their rooms, I was the only one with a window seat that could be used all year
round.

I
curled up in the winter reading nook and thumbed through the pages to my
bookmark. I found the last paragraph I’d read and returned to Mark Sway and
Reggie Love’s world of mystery and suspense.

It
was so easy to sink into this other world. I’d spent the majority of my
childhood with my nose stuck in a book and pretending I was right there, living
the adventure, right along with the protagonist.

I’d
never really had many friends. As the baby of the family, I’d spent much of my
time at home with Mom, so there weren’t many opportunities to play with other
kids aside from my siblings. Most of my days were spent playing alone while Mom
tended to things around the house or running errands with her. Sometimes we’d
go to the park or stop for ice cream.

My
favorite times, though, were when we went to the library. She’d let me pick out
tons of books, and we’d come home and she’d read to me. Once I started to learn
to read on my own, she’d let me curl up on the couch all day and read until my
heart was content.

Preschool
had been terrifying because I’d never been away from Mom like that before. By
then I was so used to being alone that I really wasn’t sure what to do around
the other kids and they didn’t seem to know what to make of me, so the two
years I went to preschool weren’t easy.

Meeting
Tegan in kindergarten had been a godsend. She was the first person who didn’t
perceive my independent play and shyness as an oddity. Through most of
elementary school Tegan had served as a terrific friend, but also a good buffer
between other kids and me. That had made it possible to form other tentative
acquaintances with my classmates throughout the years and made me feel like
less of a weirdo.

As
my focus returned to the book, the rest of the world fell away, and it wasn’t
until there was a knock at the door that I pulled my eyes away from the book.
“Come in,” I muttered, distracted.

Luke
poked his head into the room. “Dinner’s ready.”

“Okay,
I’ll be right down,” I answered. Luke left without another word, and I grabbed
my bookmark and pressed it between the pages before closing the book.

 A
quick glanced at the clock showed that it was well after seven, which meant Mom
must have got home later than usual. My stomach growled in realization. I
hadn’t even heard her car pull into the driveway, so absorbed was I.

When
I got downstairs, Luke was telling Mom about Skylar’s laundry gaffe and his
resulting ruined shirt.

“Not
only did she turn my shirt pink,” Luke commented, and the earlier humor had
faded back into scorn, “she also turned her own shirt into something fit for a
toddler.”

Mom
was only half listening as she put the food out on the table, and Skylar was
scowling at Luke as he spoke.

“Luke,
we’ll get you a new shirt,” Mom finally said with exasperation. “And, Skylar,
what were you thinking putting reds with whites?”

“I
didn’t know!” Skylar exclaimed as Dad entered the room.

“What’s
with all of the yelling?” he questioned. “Can’t we just have a quiet peaceful
dinner? It’s bad enough we’re damn near eating dinner at bedtime.” He glanced
at Mom as he said the last part.

“Well,
then I guess some other people around here need to learn how to cook then,
don’t they?” Mom replied with a pointed look at Dad.

That
shut Dad right up, and the rest of dinner was quiet and tense. And, honestly,
the food wasn’t too great either. Mom usually managed to fix Hamburger Helper
without any problems, but tonight the hamburger seemed overcooked, and she also
burned the dinner rolls. All in all it seemed to be turning out to be a not so
lovely evening with the Grangers.

I
felt bad for Mom because it seemed like no one was cutting her any slack. Dad
wasn’t even trying. He was just sitting around complaining about being hungry.
At least Skylar and Luke were trying to be helpful, but neither of their attempts
had turned out too well. If anything, they’d probably only made matters worse
for Mom because she had to come home from work and listen to them bicker about
botched laundry on top of getting dinner on the table.

I
just wished they’d all quit being so selfish.

After
dinner, I decided to help Mom with the dishes. Luke, Skylar, and Dad fled the
room almost immediately while I started gathering the dishes from my end of the
table. I followed Mom into the kitchen, and we poured the left over food on the
plates down the garbage disposal.

“Thank
you, Silly,” Mom said tiredly as she reached for the pots and pans on the
stove.

“You’re
welcome, Mom,” I smiled taking the dishes from her and loading them into the
dishwasher, along with the plates from dinner. I closed the door and hit the
buttons to turn it on.

I
turned to watch her clean off the dirty stove and counter. I felt like I needed
to say more. She looked like she was having a stressful day, but I wasn’t sure
what I could even say to make her feel better, so I said the first thing I
could think of. “I think it’s great that you’re working again, Mom.”

She
stopped cleaning the counter to look at me. Eyebrows raised and tone clearly
surprised, she asked, “You do?”

“Yeah,”
I nodded. “And I think things will get better around here once we all get used
to the new routine. I know Dad’s kind of stuck in his ways, and Skylar and Luke
are kind self-absorbed, but I really think we’ll be okay.”

Some
of the stress seemed to clear from Mom’s elfin features as she cracked a smile.
“Thank you, Silly,” she said, dropping the dishrag and stepping over to pull me
into a warm embrace.

I
squeezed back, and as she pulled away, I offered, “I can clean this up for you
if you want.”

“Don’t
you have homework to do?”

I
shook my head. “I’ve already finished it.”

She
looked reluctant to accept the offer, but I could tell she was dying to sit
down and relax for a while, so I said, “Go. I can do this.”

“You
really are a blessing,” she said, hugging me again before she slipped out of
the room.

I
picked up the dishrag Mom had been using and finished cleaning the counters. As
I was wiping down the dining room table, Luke came downstairs with a pile of
clothes in his arms.  I didn’t even want to ask what he was planning to do, so
I headed for the hallway, but before I could escape to my room, he called my
name.

I
groaned inwardly, but I turned around and walked into the utility room, where
Luke was standing with his clothes in hand.

“What?”
I asked, leaning against the doorjamb.

“Do
you think you could show me how this thing works?” he asked, gesturing to the
washer.

I
bit my lip to hide my surprise and nodded quietly. The fact Luke was actually
asking for help was a shock, and the fact he was asking
me
came as an
even bigger surprise. Apparently, having his favorite shirt ruined caused him
to suck it up and give laundry a try for himself. I couldn’t blame him. I
wouldn’t let Skylar near any of my clothes after what she’d done either.

I’d
always considered myself to, generally, be an optimist. Even when something bad
happened, I tried to keep a positive outlook. It wasn’t always easy, of course,
but people were always saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
Personally, I’d have preferred to make lemon meringue pie because I liked it
better than lemonade, but the idea remained the same.

Sometimes,
though, it could be really difficult to find the bright side; especially when
what was shaping up to be a positively great day turned into an absolutely
dreadful one in the span of only a couple of hours.

It
was days like those that turned my optimism inside out. I didn’t like to be
pessimistic, but there were times when I could see why the other members of my
family were often so negative about things. Sometimes, I was sure that
pessimism was closer to realism than optimism because of all the bad that
happened in the world.

And
on those days, when I found myself facing something bad, I wanted to take those
metaphoric lemons, make the damn pie and shove it directly in life’s face.

My
lemon day started off really well. When I arrived at school on Friday morning,
Tegan found me at my locker.

“Tierney
is going bowling with Jesse tomorrow night, and she invited us to come along.”

I
stuffed my books, save for the ones I’d need during first block, into my locker
along with my messenger bag before glancing at Tegan. “I take it things are
going well with Jesse then.”

“Oh
yes,” Tegan nodded. She rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling, so I could
only assume that Tierney was still in her “goofy in love” stage with Jesse.
They’d been seeing each other pretty regularly since Halloween, and the times
I’d seen them together they were so sickeningly sweet. I couldn’t be anything
other than happy for Tierney for finally getting together with her crush, but
there was that small part of me that envied her like crazy.

“Anyway,”
Tegan went on, and her excitement seemed to grow. “Tierney said we should
invite a couple of friends if we wanted.”

“Oh?”
This, of course, piqued my interest.

“Yeah,
they’ve invited a few people, but Tierney said it was the more the merrier,”
Tegan explained. “We’ll just break up into teams, you know?”

From
the sound of things, Tegan had already accepted the invite on behalf of herself
and me, which I didn’t mind. I thought it sounded like fun. I hadn’t been
bowling in a while, and it wasn’t often I made plans with anyone besides Tegan
and Tierney.

Last
weekend with Jackson and Tegan felt so much like a fluke. I still couldn’t
believe Jackson had shown up like that out of the blue to invite me to the
movies. It was exciting to have more plans lined up for this weekend. 

Tegan
had teased me often since our night at the drive-in. “If I hadn’t been there,
you and Jackson totally would have wound up making out,” she claimed.

I
didn’t believe it for a second, even though I really wanted to.  At the same
time, the idea of making out with Jackson kind of left me feeling a little
flustered. With lips like his, he was likely to have done his fair share of
kissing. I’d never kissed anyone except for on the cheek, and that totally
didn’t count as real kissing. Even though I was convinced Jackson had no
interest in me beyond friendship, I couldn’t help but fret over the idea of,
theoretically, kissing him.

What
if I did it wrong? Or what if I was just a bad kisser by nature? There was so
much to consider that in the end I was glad Tegan was there. Her taunts gave me
both hope and anxiety.

Realistically,
though, I was convinced Jackson held no interest in me other than amusement and
a shared love of the written word. After all, he was far too normal by Skylar’s
standards to like me as anything more than a friend.

“So,”
Tegan said, raising an eyebrow, “are you going to invite Jackson?”

“Oh,
I don’t think—”

“Well,
I do think it’s a good idea!” Tegan broke in.

“You
didn’t let me finish. You don’t know that’s what I was going to say,” I
frowned.

She
narrowed her silver eyes, and I sighed, throwing up my free hand. “Okay, maybe
that’s what I was going to say,” I admitted. “And you might be sure about
inviting Jackson, but I’m not so sure.”

“Why
not?” Tegan frowned. “We had a good time last weekend.”

“I
don’t know,” I shrugged. “I mean, are Jackson and I even really friends?”

Tegan’s
eyes widened as her jaw slackened and her shoulders drew back, as if she’d been
socked in the midsection. It wasn’t often Tegan looked at me as if I’d lost my
mind—or completely blew hers—so I’d obviously said something that seemed
unbelievable to her.

“You’re
kidding, right?” There was an edge of worry mixed with her incredulity.

I
started to speak, but I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just shrugged. Guys were
an even bigger mystery to me than friendship, and, considering I only had one
really good friend I spent my time with outside of school, I thought that said
a lot. That, combined with Tegan’s astonishment had me feeling unsure of
myself.

“Sil,”
Tegan said, her voice softer and serious. “Of course you and Jackson are
friends. You talk to him online all the time, and he came over to your house to
invite you to hang out with him. That’s the same sort of thing you and I do all
the time, so why would it be any different with him?”