Page 90 of Skalterra By Nightmare
I fought against the laugh that worked its way up my chest, but was unsuccessful.
“Then yes, you’re opening the shop all by yourself on Wednesday.”
The day saw a steady stream of customers that kept Liam from lurking by the register too much. He still found reasons to come over to my side of the shop between ice-cream cones, and judging by the way he continuously surveyed my face, he was waiting for me to pass out again.
“I’m fine,” I hissed at him a little bit after lunch when he reached for my forehead with the back of his hand.
“What?” He blushed. “You’ve got hair in your face. I’m helping.”
“You’re checking my temperature!”
“Am not.” He batted my hands away and pushed my flyaways back from my forehead. “See? That’s better.”
I ducked away again, and strands of loose hair fell back into my face.
“Liam, you’ve got a line.”
We both jumped as Gams came out of the stairwell door behind me. Liam spun around to look at the two teenaged girls looking over their ice-cream options.
“Sorry, Ethel.” Liam hurried back to his station, and I smiled at my grandmother.
“Don’t let Gladys and Sarah see you two being so chummy with each other.” Gams smirked at me. Jonquil leapt up to the countertop and bumped against Gams’s hand in search of scratches. “You’ll be the talk of the town if you aren’t careful.”
“You told me to be nice to him, so that’s what I’m doing.”
“Be nice, yes.” She scooped Jonquil into her arms. “Be a friend when he needs one. But that’s it.”
She tickled Jonquil’s chin to avoid looking me in the eye.
“You know he isn’t like my high school friends. He won’t hurt me.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Gams turned to make her way back to her workshop.
“You thinkI’llhurthim?” I whispered after her.
“I think you’re on different trajectories,” she said matter-of-factly. “You’re going to do great things some day, Wren, just like your mother. This town is too small for you the same way it was too small for her. But Liam’s a good boy, and he belongs in Keel Watch.”
“Gams!” I hissed after her as she and Jonquil headed towards the workshop door.
“Restock the chips when you have a moment, would you?”she called back. “They’re looking a bit picked over.”
She closed the workshop door behind her.
I blew a flyaway hair from my face, and when it fluttered back into place, I ripped my hair tie out and let my pathetic ponytail collapse. I flinched as I pulled a strand of hair from the nape of my neck where my undercut was becoming unruly.
Gams had told me to be nice to Liam. She’d been so happy about me making friends, but now I was supposed toreel that in? I scowled at Liam, but he was too busy scooping ice-cream to notice me.
What did Gams know about what I was going to do with my life? What did she know aboutLiam? What if he wanted to leave Keel Watch after he graduated? What ifIwanted to stay? The town was on a tectonic fault line after all. If I did become a geophysicist, it might not be a bad place to live.
Liam looked up from the cake cone he was fussing over and met my eyes.
I pulled another hair.
The girls took their ice-cream to the chicken shelf, and I marched out from behind the register to grab more chips from the storage closet, still fuming over Gams’s words.
It was just like the Riley thing all over again. Help put up posters, but also don’t. Be Liam’s friend, but don’t be too friendly.
