Page 46 of Reclaim Me

He rubs at bleary eyes and looks between me and Hunter. “Um, good morning?”

“I packed your lunch!” I chirp, forcing a smile as I hold the lunchbox up as proof.

Will walks over and gives me a peck on the cheek. “I already told you you don’t need to do that, Rae.”

“I know, but I wanted to.”

“I’m heading up to bed,” Hunter grunts, leaving the room before Will or I have a chance to respond.

“What was that about?” Will asks, staring at the doorway Hunter just passed through.

I bite my lip, my mind on the kiss and how he wanted it just as badly as I did. “I have no idea.”

17

RAE

Now

For as long as I can remember, Riley has always, and I mean always, loved science. Even when she was a toddler, she’d have me doing all kinds of homemade experiments—taping water bottles together so she could have a handheld tornado, mixing together hydrogen peroxide, yeast, and dish detergent to make elephant toothpaste, and buying every slime kit known to man. The first time I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, her answer was a mad scientist, and even though she dropped the ‘mad’ part somewhere between ages six and seven, her answer has stayed the same over the years.

As a dancer and born creative, I haven’t always understood her interest, but I’ve made a commitment to supporting it, to showing her that I don’t care if she never wears a pair of pointe shoes—which she hasn’t—as long as she’s doing what makes her happy. Science makes her happy.

Or at least it did.

“Ri, what’s going on?” Dee asks through the phone. “You’ve been looking forward to the science fair all month.”

I glance at Riley through the mirror of my vanity. She’s sprawled out on the foot of my bed with the phone in her hand and a full-blown pout on her face. It’s been there all week, and I’m not sure where it came from or what to do to get rid of it. When I tried to get the answer out of her, she said she didn’t want to talk about it with me, so I had her pick someone from her list of trusted adults—which is basically just me, Dee, and sometimes Jayla—to discuss her feelings with. Unsurprisingly, she chose Dee and agreed to let me stay in the room while they talked. I was hopeful my best friend would be able to help her get her feelings sorted before we had to leave the house, but they’ve been on the phone for thirty minutes, and Riley has given her nothing.

“Are you worried about speaking to the judges?” I ask, risking being kicked out of the room for butting into the conversation. “Because I think you’re going to do great. You practiced several times, and you have your note cards if you forget what you’re going to say.”

Riley glances at me and shakes her head. I breathe a sigh of relief and turn around, more confident about contributing to the conversation now.

“Y’all do know this is a phone call, right?” Dee asks. “You actually have to use your voices if you want me to be able to respond.”

I encourage Riley to vocalize her answer with a lift of my brows. She sits up and hops off the bed, walking across the room to take a seat in my lap. Even though she’s getting too tall for it, I cradle her in my arms like a baby and kiss the top of her head.

“She said she’s not worried about the talking part, Dee.”

The silence on the other end of the line tells me my best friend is at just as much a loss as I am, which makes me feel a little less shitty about not knowing how to help.

“Well, that’s good,” Dee says eventually. “Because you’re an excellent orator, aren’t you, Ri?”

Riley nods, and I jostle her around, hoping to free a smile from her. “Then let’s hear you say it, Nugget.”

“I’m an excellent orator,” she says, her tone still flat even though there’s a ghost of a smile playing on her lips.

“And you’re going to blow those judges away, aren’t you?” Dee asks, going full-blown motivational speaker. Riley already knows the drill when her auntie gets like this, and she falls in line like a good soldier.

“I’m going to blow the judges away,” she repeats, and I can practically hear the eye roll she wants to deploy alongside the words she clearly doesn’t want to be saying right now.

The door of our bedroom opens, and Aaron appears. “It’s six o’clock.”

“Alright, Nugs, we have to go.” I tap Riley’s hip, and she slides off my lap. “Dee, I’ll call you and let you know how it goes.”

“Okay. Love you guys!”

“Love you too,” Riley and I say together before I end the call.

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