Page 5 of Tell Me It’s Right

Keava smirks at me across the kitchen table and passes the White Claw. The once-perfect kitchen is now flooded with my boxes, making the small space even more cramped, but Keava navigates it with ease as she slips the plates off the counter and joins us.

“Leo, I’m twenty-two,” I say.

He stares at me, genuine confusion pinching his eyebrows together. “No shit?”

I take a bite of my grilled cheese. “Youjustcame to my college graduation,” I remind him around my mouthful.

He frowns like he’d never thought of it that way.

Keava rolls her eyes and smiles at me like we have some kind of inside joke.

I raise a hand before he can respond. “I’ll always be twelve to you, blah, blah, blah.”

Not that he’s that much older. Four years on me and he thinks he’s some kind of authority figure now, whenI’mthe one who used to cover for him when he snuck out in high school.

“Thanks for lunch, Keava,” I add.

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

Leo stands up, leans across the table, and plants a kiss on the top of her head. “You make the best grilled cheese known to man.”

A pretty blush fills her cheeks, and the two of them stare at each other across the table, googly eyes and all.

I’ve got to get out of here.

Their heads snap up as I stand. I awkwardly jab a thumb over my shoulder. “Think I’m gonna start to unpack.”

“Of course!” says Keava.

Leo covers his mouth as he swallows a massive bite of his sandwich. “A friend agreed to come over and help carry some of the furniture down tomorrow. Is that…uh…okay?”

“I think I can survive a night on the air mattress.”

“Right.”

“You know where to find us if you need anything!” Keava calls as I head for the stairs.

The moment they’re out of sight, I let the smile drop from my face. It’s not that I’m ungrateful for them taking me in but being thisperkyis exhausting.

It’s not that I haven’t tried. For months leading up to graduation, I applied to every single job I could find. Well over a hundred. And…nothing.

Not even an interview.

No number of résumé tweaks or meticulously written cover letters or glowing recommendations got my foot in the door. Not when every entry-level job required five years of experience, andoh yeah, it’s an unpaid internship and requires a master’s degree.

So glad I spent four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a degree just to be as qualified as I was before.

I slump onto the air mattress, and the distinct hiss of air leaking out fills the room.

Sighing, I lie back and stare at the exposed beams in the ceiling, the mattress slowly sinking beneath me. Maybe if I lie here long enough, it’ll swallow me whole.

Chapter Three

GRACIE

I wake up on the floor with the air mattress folding around me. Sunlight slants in from the hopper windows near the ceiling and directly into my eyes. Groaning, I fish around until I find my phone.

5:30 AM.

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