Where We Left Off Read Online Free PDF Page A

the kitchen, it was well past dark. I’d said that I was fine to walk home, but Mallory and her grandmother wouldn’t allow it. The “crazies” came out at sundown, Nana had said. I wasn’t sure who these crazies were, exactly, but she seemed to think the safest way to avoid them was in a car. That you needed the protection of metal and steel, and her 1976 powder blue Buick Regal evidently offered just that.
    That vehicle was a tank. There were only two doors and they made me feel bad about myself as I struggled to open them. They were so damn heavy. I’d crawled into the backseat of the musty car, surprised when Mallory followed immediately behind. I was more surprised when she took the middle seat. It was intentional and so bold to sit right next to me, our thighs pressed solidly together.
    I wondered if all girls were like this here. It hadn’t been that way back at home in California. Game playing seemed to go with the territory. The chase. The retreat and then more chasing. There was no chase here, no game. Everything Mallory did meant something. Like she was telling me she liked me too, with not so many words.
    And it didn’t feel desperate or too soon. Hell, I’d known tons of guys at my last school who hooked up with girls without even knowing their names.
    I knew Mallory’s name.
    I let that simple fact give me permission to start falling for her.
    In reality, to continue falling.

Heath
    “You’re home awfully late again.” Hattie didn’t look up from her phone. It illuminated her face, and when whoever she was texting replied, I could see the reflection of that, too. Her fingers flew across the little keyboard that was flipped out on the device.
    It was eleven, but it was Friday, and that was my curfew. Hattie, my older sister, was nineteen. Her curfew wasn’t until midnight, but apparently she didn’t have any place better to be than on our couch texting her friends rather than hanging out with them.
    “Yup,” was my reply.
    “You ever gonna introduce this mystery girl to us? You’ve been hanging out for weeks now.” Again, no eye contact. It made me think of all the times I’d had my face glued to my phone. How I’d walk down the street with my fingers on the keypad. I never looked up. There must’ve been so much I missed. That night when I met Mallory should’ve been like that, but my battery had died halfway into my shift. Stupid thing never held a charge. I wondered if I would’ve walked right by her if it hadn’t. If I ever would’ve noticed her.
    “Come on, Heathcliff. Do we get to meet her?” Hattie asked again.
    “Maybe.”
    I sauntered to the kitchen and yanked on the refrigerator door. Mom worked nights as a pediatric nurse in the ICU at Stanton Hospital and dad was an ER surgeon there. He’d been on call tonight, and based on the fact that he was nowhere to be seen, I guessed he’d gotten that call to come in. Even with their loaded schedules, though, they always made sure we were taken care of. The Tupperware filled with leftover lasagna made me smile. The Post-It note that read, “For you, Cliffy,” made me laugh. Both things made me feel loved.
    Our family didn’t spend a lot of time together, but I didn’t think the quantity of time was necessarily what it took to know how someone felt. The moments we had together meant something. I was good at loving intensely. Mom and Dad had shown me how to do that. Hattie? Not so much, but I knew these were the years where we weren’t supposed to get along. Someday we’d be older with families and our own kids would play and grow up together the same way we’d grown up with our cousins back in California. Even still, I did love her, and I figured she loved me. The fact that she was asking to meet Mallory was a small and subtle sign of that, whether she’d ever admit to it or not.
    “Mom made cookies.” Hattie flicked her head toward the stove, fingers still tapping out a reply. “Peanut butter.”
    “Awesome.”
    I