Page 7 of Goodbye Note

“Sorry.” He put on a forced smile.

“No, don’t apologize. I didn’t think we could go even deeper, but you proved me wrong. That was beautiful.” I searched his face, hoping he didn’t take it the wrong way.

“Artists see the world differently.” He shrugged. “Is Nicole the reason you were in the bathroom half the night?”

“You saw that?”

He nodded carefully. “I didn’t mean to. I walked in on you talking to Serafin. I left quickly so you didn’t catch me.”

“She’s big on the tit for tat, and I think she’s mad at me for accepting Warped, so she wanted it to hurt.” The more I talked about Nicole, the more of an idiot I felt like.

“Cruel.” He rubbed his fingers over his scar. “I’ve had a few of those in my life.”

I wondered if he remembered the accident every time he touched the marred skin. “How did it happen?” The words were out before I could cut them off.

He went quiet, and I panicked. I didn’t want to scare him off or make him stop talking.

“I’m sorry?—”

He cut me off with a wave of his hand. “Don’t be. Maybe you’re brave or stupid, but you’re the only one who’s asked.”

“No one asks? Not even your friends?”

“I don’t have a lot of friends.” He turned toward the lake almost in a dismissal.“I spend a lot of time with my brother and the band.”

“Not any from school?”

“My grandparents got us tutors after it happened because they live in Brooklyn, and it’s worse than a small town there. Those neighborhoods are tight-knit and gossip like old housewives. Plus, by the time high school hit, we were already all sorts of behind after being on tour with my parents. Maybe we should have gone back, but we were too into making music and getting a following.” He paused for a second. “And it’s not like my dad is any less famous. It would have been hell.”

“I get it. My parents are second-generation immigrants. Their community is the same. It’s why they care so much about law school. I’m, like, letting them down if I don’t make something of myself.”

“Isn’t this making something of yourself?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same?” I returned.

He lifted his shoulders. “It is, but to them, it’s too tainted by my mother’s death and my father’s—” He waved a hand in the air. “General existence. So I don’t think they’ll ever see this as a good choice for Vallen and me. But if I stay away from drugs and create art that lasts, maybe they’ll see it’s not such a bad thing.”

I nodded, understanding how my extended family would have acted under the same circumstances. “I get it. We have that in common. Maybe I should give up now and go be a lawyer.”

“Could you?”

I shook my head. “No. I wouldn’t survive it.” I stepped up alongside him, watching the waves move across the lake. “Could you?”

“No, I have to do this.” His tone held a determination and pride that told me he would make it. “I want to know something.”

“What?” I asked, turning to look at him.

“Let me answer yours first.” He didn’t meet my eyes, continuing to look over the water.

“Which?” I couldn’t remember him not answering one of mine.

“About what happened to my face.”

“You don’t have to,” I said quickly. “It wasn’t cool of me to ask.”

“No, I do.”

TWO

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