Page 5 of Never Forever

Mr. Piedmont lived out on the island in the big stone house and he acted like he owned the whole damn world. Like my dad, somehow, was his servant. But Dad worked for the town. Not the Piedmonts. I told Dad it didn’t make sense.

“Not everything does, Matt,” was his answer.

There was a knock on the cabin door and Mr. Piedmont just walked in, his two daughters behind him.

Annie and Carrie.

Carrie was in my class. Annie was a few years younger. They were nice and all. Real pretty, too.

All of them were dripping wet. Carrie’s dress was soaked. Mr. Piedmont’s dress shirt was practically see-through.

Mr. Piedmont made a face like he smelled something bad and I did my best to hide the puke bowl, but he saw it.

“My God, Patrick!” Mr. Piedmont said, looking at me like I was a dead fish that washed up into his hands. “What the hell is going on?”

“Just a little seasick,” Dad said. “Sorry about the waves, I didn’t realize you were on the bow.”

“We’re absolutely soaked. We have to go back to the island to change and-”

“I’m fine, Dad,” Carrie said. “Annie and I are both fine. We’re going to be late for school.”

“Fine. You want to sit through school looking like drowned rats, that’s on you. If you catch cold, I won’t be held accountable.”

Mr. Piedmont continued to rant at my dad and Carrie stepped closer to me.

She had the brand new Reeboks that came in all the different colors. Today she wore lavender that matched the now soggy bow in her red hair.

“You sick?” she asked in her straightforward way. She was like that in class, always asking questions until the teacher sometimes had to ask her to be quiet. I liked her questions; they were often the question I had too but didn’t want to raise my hand.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Did you finish the math homework?”

I nodded.

“You want me to hand it in for you?”

“That would be cool,” I said and reached for my backpack. I pulled out the worksheet and a book report I did for extra credit. “Can you give her this, too?”

“Sure. You read a lot, huh?”

“Yeah. I like it.”

“Me too. I finished that one,” she pointed at The Giver.

“No spoilers,” I said and she smiled at me. She had a really nice smile.

“Jonas and Gabriel die at the end,” she blurted out.

“What?” I cried.

“Or do they?” she said mysteriously, in a funny voice.

I laughed despite my gross stomach, and she smiled at me.

“Carrie!” Mr. Piedmont shouted. “Get away from him. Do you want to catch what he’s got?”

Carrie gave me a wincing kind of smile that told me she knew her father was a total jerk. Which was a point in her favor. Everything was kind of a point in her favor today. Maybe because I was sick, or because we hadn’t talked a whole lot at school.

---