Page 59 of Yes No Maybe

Please say you’re coming to my party.

Again, I answeredyes. Attending Jack’s book release parties is an unwritten requirement in this neighborhood. But I want to anyway.

Airhorns sound from down the street—his release must be a hot topic on the morning talk shows.

The tradition started with Jack’s first book,Cape Moon, and a small gathering of family and friends in Tom and Marcy’s backyard. But as books kept coming, sales grew, and so did the celebration. Jack goes all out to thank the neighborhood that supports him. Black tie, book swag, live music, and catering—it promises to be a ritzy caviar and champagne party for an otherwise hot dogs and hamburgers crowd.

From the front window, Edgar and I watch Jack in his front yard, wearing his usual shorts, old band t-shirt, and flip-flops, directing the deliveries while occasionally picking weeds from his flower beds.

Another popping explosion echoes from Vernon and Rose’s driveway. Bothered by the noise, Edgar chirps and races down the hall, probably to hide under my bed.

I look up, shaking my head, to lock eyes with Jack from his yard. A timid wave passes between us, waking the butterflies in my stomach. Jack does strange things to me, like he’s a full moon, disrupting tides, altering moods, and inexplicably crowding emergency rooms. I don’t quite know what to think about him—only that I am.A lot.

Stranger still, he and I are becoming very good friends.

My phone buzzes in my hand—a text from Jack.Need help with those notebooks?

With a light laugh, I text back.It’s party day. You have much better things to do.I breathe out a sigh as I hit send. Though I’ve given Dr. Evelyn Tate a vague semester-long plan, I now need to fill in the gaps, not with traditional lesson plans outlining lectures, activities, and assignments but with what I’m calling Weekly Guides, material to have on hand and share based on each week’s theme. The first week, I plan to discuss genre to help them make their first book choices.What makes a book timeless… what makes a bestseller… what books appeal to them individually.Though I won’t dictate what we do, I need something to inspire them and fill awkward silences.

Not really. It’s too chaotic to write. Let me hide out with you?

If you’re here, I won’t get anything done.It’s a truth that pains me to admit—I’d rather hang out with Jack. But with school starting soon, I can’t procrastinate any longer.

I’m looking forward to tonight, I add on as an afterthought. I even know what I’m wearing—a sleek black dress with a swan-necked collar, which minimizes my neck scars without requiring a cumbersome scarf. In case there’s dancing, I think, hopefully. I’m not even nervous—a shocker, given that the oyster roast had me swearing off neighborhood parties and contemplating moving altogether.

Besides, as Mom rightly pointed out, it’s abookparty. It’ll give me a cool story to tell my students when school starts. Dean sounded excited, too. “I hear Tom Holland’s starring inCape Moon… you know, fromSpiderman? They’re talking to Elle Fanning. Do you think they’ll be there?”

I had no idea. But it was a nice change having an upbeat conversation with Dean. He even said he loved me at the end, raising hope that things will return to normal when he’s home.

I head down the hall to my room, passing Sara’s door. A sticky note slapped to her door reads, “My house.”

My phone chimes.I’m looking forward to you being there. Text me immediately if you change your mind about the notebooks.

Annoying Jack-tingle-shocks release in a cleansing breath.

Sara arrives home just before the party while I put the final touches on my smokey eyes. I call out a greeting, but she doesn’t answer—the typical response.

So, I jump when I catch her reflection in my bathroom mirror behind me.

“You, um, you look nice.”

I smooth out the sides of my dress. “Thanks. Do you really think so?”

She nods, plopping beside Edgar on the bed.

“It should be fun. Rose and Vernon said that sometimes Jack does door prizes.” I turn to face her. “Aren’t you going to get dressed? You said you’d come—”

“Something’s come up.” She gnaws on her inner lip while worry lines clutter her forehead. “I was hoping you’d be okay with me staying at my place tonight.”

“Why?” My strappy black heels click across the wood floor as I sit on the opposite bed corner.

“Um, I miss home… It’ll just be for one night—I think. Maybe.” She fiddles with her fingers uneasily.

“Sara, whatever it is, just tell me. Maybe I can help.”

Her intricate eye-rolling ability makes a stunning return. Still, it ends with resignation as she slumps and blurts out, “My cousin Shaina says that my other cousins—the ones responsible for Dad being in jail—are planning to rob our house tonight. It’s like the perfect crime with no one there. I thought if I’m there with the lights on and the TV going, they’ll think he rented it out and won’t risk it.” She holds up her phone, tapping on a soundtrack of barking dogs that scares Edgar from the bed with a shrill meow. “See? I’ll play this if I see them coming. They hate dogs.”

“How sure is Shaina that it’ll be tonight?”

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