Page 44 of Necessary Cruelty

Fifteen

It takesa day or two of ignoring the elephant in my house before I finally get around to playing with the iPhone. Vin hasn’t approached me at all, no more messages and no following me around at school, almost as if he’s trying to bide his time.

Every so often a new text from the only contact pops up on the screen, always saying the same thing.

Say yes

Say yes

Say yes

But I haven’t so much as laid eyes on him in the hallway. There hasn’t been any sneaking into my room in the middle of the night, or otherwise pestering me. My days are as silent as they’ve ever been. Even my usual tormentors, like Sophia, have mostly been ignoring me.

Zion has been spending more and more of his time cutting class and hanging out with his Gulch friends, most of whom had already dropped out by sophomore year. Grandpa is doing better than he has in years, but he is still usually asleep by the time I get home from school.

Jake still smiles at me when our path’s cross at school, but he learned his lesson the last time and hasn’t spoken a word to me. He risked passing me one note during AP Government to confirm that we were still on for the Founder’s Ball.

It makes me wonder if he only wants to take me at this point to prove something to Vin.

That would be pointless, taking on Vin Cortland doesn’t make you brave. Just stupid.

But even the possibility of going to the Founder’s Ball with the person who will piss Vin off most isn’t enough to overrule the isolation that suffuses every moment.

I have never felt so alone in my entire life.

But maybe that’s the point.

When I finally force myself to ask him, it turns out that Zion has Amelia’s phone number.

I’ve never asked him how he always manages to have a phone on him despite our extreme poverty, but I can only assume it involves petty theft of some kind.

The night before the Founder’s Ball, I finally decide to reach out to her. Amelia is the closest thing I have to a girl friend. I can trust her not to spread stories, because she has as few people to talk to as I do.

It’s Zaya. I have an iPhone, a fridge full of food, and I don’t know what to do.

Be there in 15.

“This looks like something out of Extreme Makeover - Trailer Park Edition,” Amelia exclaims as she walks through the door. “What in the name of Adam’s shiny elbow happened to your house?”

Amelia isn’t cursing, even though it really seems like she wants to. It makes me wonder what the hell must have happened for her not to let a damn or hell slip out of her mouth.

I hold up the phone so she can see the picture of Vin that has been set on the home screen. There is some kind of parental lock that prevents me from changing it. It’s been days, and I still haven’t cracked it.

Amelia lets out a low whistle as she looks around the transformed living room. “Is this what all that posturing at the Gas and Sip was about? I thought Cortland was going to strangle you, not remodel your house.”

If given the two options, I know which one I’d have preferred. I gesture for her to follow me upstairs so we don’t disturb Grandpa, who is still sleeping.

He sleeps a lot these days. I doubt he has even noticed all of the changes in the house.

“Are you going to explain?” she asks expectantly as I close the bedroom door behind us and sit down on the bed.

Instead of answering, my thumbs move along the phone’s screen. Moments later her crappy flip phone vibrates with the message.

He wants me to marry him.

I like her even more when, instead of screaming for joy or telling me how lucky I am, her mouth drops open and she just stares at me.

“Why?”

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