Page 104 - NS 2024

some things in life that you don’t need to see the good in. I get that you’re all about positivity and everything, Everly, but not everything has a positive side. Mom is dead and she’s never coming back.” I’m not sure if it was conscious or not, but Sienna shied away from the two of us. I suppose
she could sense that this was a conict between me and Owen, and that she had no place in it. roughout this whole expedition, we’d been distracting ourselves from the person who was forcing us through all these tasks. It almost felt like a disgrace to be swimming in the ocean and sneaking around a library at night when our mom had been buried twelve hours earlier. Would it have been more of a disgrace to ignore her letters, though?
“I’m not saying I’m glad she’s dead,” I told Owen, worried he was interpreting it that way. “I’m just pointing out that the only reason we’re together aer not seeing each other for two years is because of her death.”
“You could have visited me anytime you wanted. You have your license!” “And do what?” I asked.
“ere’s things to do where I live. ere’s a mall and-”
“No, Owen. What would we have talked about? What would we have done together? I wouldn’t have visited you just to visit the town you live in. For the record, you didn’t come visit home either. It would have been easier for you to do that. ere’s a bedroom waiting for you there.”
“Being back there feels like choking,” He said in a uiet tone. “I can’t believe I used to think I was so free. I was so naive.”
“You are free. You have a job, money, a car. You could go anywhere,” I insisted. It killed me that Owen couldn’t see the opportunities in front of him. He saw one path in front of him, and that was to wake up and go to his job. He couldn’t embrace a single ounce of the freedom and imagination he held as a child.
“Everly-” Sienna interrupted. “I think the janitor is on his way back.”
“Shit,” I muttered. “Let’s go.”
Me and Sienna bolted out of the room just in time for the janitor to walk by. Luckily, he
didn’t see us. We crouched behind a bookshelf. I was still catching my breath, still holding back tears from my argument with Owen.
When I looked up, Sienna was staring right at me. I wished she would look away, but she didn’t, and I began to appreciate her intense gaze. Someone cared. Someone was trying to understand me.
“Do you think he’s going to disappear again aer all of this?” Sienna asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I suppose I could do more too. I could text him. I could go visit him. I guess it just feels like his responsibility since he’s the older one. Does that make sense?” “Yeah,” Sienna replied. “I’m the oldest in my family. I try to keep up with my siblings, but they’re still living with my parents.”
I was about to encourage her to reach out to her siblings, but my phone rang. e noise