Borrowed Light for My YouthChapter 2

That night, lying in bed, I kept going back over what I'd heard.

Grant's birthday had been that day.

Lena's was two days later.

So it wasn't only the scent on their clothes.

Even their birthdays sat right next to each other.

The next morning I walked over to Lena's.

Her mom opened the door.

"Owen! Get in here."

Lena called something from her room but didn't come out.

"I don't understand your school," Miss Carol said. "The SAT is in a few weeks and they're handing out days off. How is anybody supposed to stay focused?"

She tipped her head toward Lena's door.

"That one's been gaming since breakfast."

Then she pulled fruit out of the refrigerator.

"Go keep her company. Tell me what you want for dinner and I'll make it."

Miss Carol left for the grocery store. I stood outside Lena's door and knocked.

She had a headset on, mid-game.

She caught me out of the corner of her eye and waved me in.

I sat behind her and watched.

I didn't understand the game.

I didn't understand half of what she was saying to the people on the other end of the headset either.

When the round finally ended, she turned around.

"The sun's brutal out there. Why'd you come over?"

I held out the box I'd brought.

"Happy birthday, Lena."

"Thanks."

She took it and set it down beside her without opening it.

Her phone went off right then.

She glanced at the screen and picked up.

"Lena, get back in.

"Grant says he'll carry us. We got wrecked all morning. This is our shot."

She said okay and pulled the headset back on.

Then, like she'd just remembered I was in the room, she glanced over her shoulder.

"I got some new books. They're on the shelf. Take whatever."

She turned back to the monitor and didn't look at me again.

I sat there a while, watching her laugh with people whose world I couldn't get into.

It was the first time it really landed.

She and I didn't live in the same one anymore.

"I'm heading out."

I thought she hadn't heard.

But I got as far as the door and she called after me.

"You're still going to Westbridge, right?"

Westbridge had always been her school. And it was the one we'd promised each other, years ago.

I nodded.

"What about you?"

"Okay. Got it."

I wanted to ask what that meant.

She was already back in the game.

My eyes went to the gift she'd shoved onto the shelf because it was in her way.

It was the out-of-print record she'd been talking about for months.

I'd worked through every secondhand shop on the east side of town, a dozen of them, one at a time. It took me two full weeks to turn up a copy, and then I had to talk the owner into parting with it at all.

Now it was standing in the corner where she'd dropped it.

Nobody was going to touch it.

That was about how I felt too.

I was pulling my shoes on by the door when I heard her voice from the bedroom.

Somebody in the game had apparently asked her something.

"Westbridge? I don't want to go. I hate that city, it's way too dry.

"I'll figure it out when the letters come."

My hand went unsteady on the doorknob.

Then why had she asked whether I was still going?

So she'd know what to avoid?

The door opened from the other side.

Miss Carol came in with the groceries.

"Owen, you're leaving already? Stay and eat."

I made myself smile.

"No, thank you. I want to get some studying in."

She didn't push. She turned and aimed her voice at Lena's door instead.

"Lena! Still on that game? You could at least see Owen out!"

I came out of the stairwell into the sun.

It was warm all the way through.

Inside, I was hollow.

So much for going to Westbridge together.

She'd stopped caring about that a long time ago, which meant I didn't have to keep my end of it either.

The night before the SAT, I got a text from her.

"I'll pick you up in the morning."

I looked at it for a long time, then typed back.

"No need. My family's taking me."

The next morning, I walked through the gates by myself.

For the first time, at something that actually mattered, Lena wasn't next to me.

I found my room on the seating chart and turned to go.

Somebody slammed into my back.