Page 110 of Daydream

“Oh,” he says like this isn’t a huge deal. “I got Anastasia a label maker for Christmas, and I was teaching her how to use it. It’s your stuff so it needed a label.”

My heart feels like it’s lodged in my throat. It’s the smallest gesture, and yet it’s so huge to me. But he will actually throw me out if I start crying over a label, so I need to pull myself together. “You make me feel so special, Henry.”

“Good,” he says. “You are special.”

“I should go. I really do have a lot to do.”Like cry in privacy.

“Do you need help?” he asks.

“Thank you, but you’re more of a distraction than you are help.”

“I wasn’t offering—I was going to tell you to speak to Russ. He’s great at cleaning.”

I roll my eyes as hard as I can as I shuffle past him. He blocks me with his arm, kissing my neck and poking me in the side. “Goodbye, Henry.”

“Bye, Cap.” He catches me before I can fully turn, kissing me in a way that has my already unreliable legs on the brink of collapse. “Halle, wait!”

He jogs out of the room, leaving me very confused. When he returns, he holds up my necklace. “No bad luck.”

I know I have a goofy grin on my face the entire ride home. I catch it in my mirrors every so often, but I couldn’t get rid of it if I tried.

Well, until I pull into my driveway and find a car I don’t recognize and my lights on. A normal person would think they’re being burgled. A normal person would panic and call 911; they wouldn’t let themselves into the house with their potential robbers. But I’m not a normal person, and I know this is so much worse than being robbed, because when I walk into my living room, my mom and stepdad are drinking a bottle of wine with Will and his parents.

“Surprise, Hallebear!” Mom shouts, jumping up from her seat to hug me tight. “Why do you have paint in your hair?”

Chapter Thirty-FourHALLE

IF THERE’S A HIGHER POWER,it fucking hates me.

There’s no other explanation for why my worst nightmare has dropped on my doorstep a day earlier than planned. Not even my doorstep—they’re in my house. Because apparently my parents think it’s totally normal to let themselves into a house they don’t live in. Okay, maybe Mom owns the house, but still. I could have been here walking around naked. Henry could have been here walking around naked.

My mom takes great joy in explaining that Will’s coach let him travel early since his parents were flying in for the game. She says it like it’s a wonderful thing, and I can’t process the words to express how it does not feel like that. I want to ask why they didn’t just fly to Will’s house and travel with him tomorrow, but it feels like a hallucination and I’m not quite sure how to deal with it.

I wait until they’re all talking about how excited they are to go to the game before pulling my cell phone out of my pocket. I bring up my chat with my friends.

SPICE GIRLS

HALLE JACOBS

What’s the code for when you get homeand your ex, his family, and your parents have let themselves into your house?

POPPY GRANT

Is there a color more urgent than red? Like code super red?

CAMI WALKER

fuck the code babe, RUN

EMILIA BENNETT

Do you want us to come and save you? I can call in a gas leak and get your street evacuated

AURORA ROBERTS

leave them in your house and we can have another sleepover at the hotel!!! don’t forget Joy though

HALLE JACOBS

---