Page 65 of Down My Chimney

I blushed, wondering if he was remembering our conversations online last year.

“What was it like?” he asked a few minutes later, as I was helping him glue together his gingerbread canoe. “Your semester, I mean.”

“It was…” I trailed off, not sure what to say.

How do you boil months of your life down to a one-sentence description? Especially when you’re not sure you want to tell the truth?

“It was different, I guess? I mean, it was really pretty. We got to see so many beautiful theaters, and just traveling around those countries, soaking up all the history, was really cool. And I loved my classes.”

“But?” Blake said after a moment.

I bit my lip. “But I spent a lot of time alone.”

“What do you mean?”

I shrugged. “It was just weird. A lot of the other kids had traveled abroad before. And they were already living away from home for college. But not me. This was the first time I’d been gone that long, or that far. It doesn’t sound cool to say, but I missed my family a lot.”

“I get that,” Blake said. “Sometimes you don’t realize how much you rely on people until they’re gone.”

Wasn’t that the truth.

“So no plans to go back, then?” he asked after a bit. “You’re not gonna run off and become an expat on us?”

“No.” I smiled sadly. “I wouldn’t mind going back to some of those places. And there’s a lot of stuff I’d still love to see. But…I think if I go back, I don’t want to go by myself.”

Blake gave me a sharp glance, and I looked down at the gingerbread in my hands.Whoops. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“What about you?” I asked, eager for a new topic of conversation. “How was your semester?”

“Oh, fine.” He shrugged. “Nothing new, really.”

Something about the way he said it made me look up, and I could see it in his eyes—there was something he wasn’t telling me. Was it the same thing his dad had been so insistent we talk about?

“I’m sure that’s not true,” I said, keeping my tone light. I wasnotgoing to get all jealous and weird if he told me something I didn’t want to hear. I’d said I wanted to be his friend and I meant it. “Come on, I’m sure some interesting things happened.”

Again, I saw hesitation flash through his eyes. But this time, he nodded. “There actually is something I wanted to tell you.”

My heart stopped for a second, and when I inhaled, my throat was raspy. I tried to cover it up with a cough.

“Sorry,” I said. “Just inhaled some powdered sugar. Go on.”

Blake pressed his lips together. God, I wanted to kiss him. And here he was, about to tell me—

“I’m switching my major. To business.”

“Wait, what?” I burst out laughing.Thiswas the big news he’d been holding back? I felt lightheaded. “That’s awesome.”

“Really?” He sounded skeptical.

“Of course,” I said, trying to get my laughter under control. I sounded unhinged. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Because you told me once that if I ever decided to major in business, I should lie to you about it?”

“When did I tell you that?”

“Last year,” he said promptly. He must have seen the confusion on my face, because he added, “Online.”

“Oh.” My teeth snapped shut. All my scrolling through those conversations, and I’d still managed to miss that. “Well, I was wrong, and you shouldn’t have listened to me. You should major in whatever interests you.”

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