Page 10 of Dash of Bryce
In a tight voice, she replied, "Except it'snotyours right now, is it?"
"It is, too," I said. "I still own it." I paused. "Well, me and my sister."
"Yes," she said in that same voice. "Butyou'renot the one living there."
"So what?" I said. "I still have rights. Like, what happens if he carpets the place?"
She gave a cynical snort. "Heaven forbid."
"I'm serious. What if he does?"
"He won't."
"How can you be sure?"
"Aside from the fact he would be stupid to spend that kind of money on a place that's not his own?"
I saw what she meant, but I refused to take anything for granted. "Yeah. Aside from that."
"Alright. It's because the lease forbids it, as you darn well know."
"Yeah, well people do forbidden things all the time asyoudarn well know." And then, to drive the point home, I added, "You remember whatyoudid with Jason Reynolds in the stadium parking lot, right?"
She made a sound of annoyance. "That wasonetime. And no one would've known ifyouhadn't walked in on us."
Technically, very little walking had been involved. Instead, I'd opened one rear door to one orange van, only to catch Myra and Jason doing it doggy style in the cargo area of the vehicle the school used to transport band equipment.
Jason had been a first-chair trombone player whose instrument saw a lot of action – and Iwasn'treferring to the trombone.
To Myra, I said, "And nobodystillknows, because I never said a word, remember?"It was true.I hadn't even told my sister even though I'd sorely wanted to.
See? Icould keep a secret.
On the phone, Myra asked, "So why'd you bring him up?"
"I was just making a point. "
"Which was…?"
"Just because you're notsupposedto do something, it doesn't mean you won't."
"Oh." Her tone grew snotty. "Just likeyou'renot supposed to be bothering the tenant?"
"I'm not 'bothering' him," I said. "I'm just watching from the park."
"So you're spying on him."
"Not technically," I said. "If anything, I'm spying on the house."
"Oh, like that's soooooo much better."
"Yeah, well maybe I wouldn’t need to spy if you would've just introduced us like I asked."
"Why?" she scoffed. "So you could hassle him in advance? Remind him to use coasters and wipe down the sinks?"
I didn't appreciate her tone."What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're a control freak," she said.
