Chapter Eleven
I curl up in my bed and stare at it.
Iâm almost ďŹnished with it. There arenât very many more entries.
I pick up the journal and place it on the pillow beside me.
âIâm not going to read you,â I whisper.
Although, if I read whatâs left, Iâll be ďŹnished. Having seen Atlas tonight and knowing he has a girlfriend and a job and more than likely a home is enough closure I need on that chapter. And if I just ďŹnish the damn journal, I can put it back in the shoebox and never have to open it again.
I ďŹnally pick it up and roll onto my back. âEllen DeGeneres, you are such a bitch.â
Dear Ellen,
âJust keep swimming.â
Recognize that quote, Ellen? Itâs what Dory says to Marlin in Finding Nemo.
âJust keep swimming, swimming, swimming.â
Iâm not a huge fan of cartoons, but Iâll give you props for that one. I like cartoons that can make you laugh, but also make you feel something. After today, I think thatâs my favorite cartoon. Because Iâve been feeling like drowning lately, and sometimes people need a reminder that they just need to
keep swimming.
Atlas got sick. Like really sick.
Heâs been crawling through my window and sleeping on the ďŹoor for a few nights in a row now, but last night, I knew something was wrong as soon as I looked at him. It was a Sunday, so I hadnât seen him since the night before, but he looked awful. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin was pale, and even though it was cold, his hair was sweaty. I didnât even ask if he was feeling okay, I already knew he wasnât. I put my hand on his forehead and he was so hot, I almost yelled for my mother.
He said, âIâll be ďŹne, Lily,â and then he started to make his pallet on the ďŹoor. I told him to wait there and then I went to the kitchen and poured him a glass of water. I found some medicine in the cabinet. It was ďŹu medicine and I wasnât even sure if thatâs what was wrong with him, but I made him take some anyway.
He laid there on the ďŹoor, curled up into a ball, when, about half an hour later he said, âLily? I think Iâm gonna need a trash can.â
I jumped up and grabbed the trash can from under my desk and knelt down in front of him. As soon as I set it down, he hunched over it and started throwing up.
God, I felt bad for him. Being so sick and not having a bathroom or a bed or a house or a mother. All he had was me and I didnât even know what to do for him.
When he was ďŹnished, I made him drink some water and then I told him to get on the bed. He refused, but I wasnât having it. I put the trash can on the ďŹoor next to the bed and made him move to the bed.
He was so hot and shaking so bad I was just scared to leave him on the ďŹoor. I laid down next to him and every hour for the next six hours he continued getting sick. I kept having to take the trash can to the bathroom to empty it out. Iâm not gonna lie, it was gross. The grossest night Iâve ever had, but what else could I do? He needed me to help him and I was all he had.
When it came time for him to leave my room this morning, I told him to go back to his house and Iâd be over to check on him before school. Iâm surprised he even had the energy to crawl out of my window. I left the trash can next to my bed and waited for my mom to come wake me up. When she did, she saw the trash can and immediately held her hand to my forehead.
âLily, are you okay?â
I groaned and shook my head. âNo. I was up all night sick. I think itâs over now, but I havenât slept.â
She picked up the trash can and told me to stay in bed, that sheâd call the school and let them know I wasnât coming. After she left for work, I went and got Atlas and told him he could stay with me at the house all day. He was still getting sick, so I let him use my room to sleep. Iâd check on him every half hour or so and ďŹnally around lunch he stopped throwing up. He went and took a shower and then I made him some soup.
He was too tired to even eat it. I got a blanket and we both sat down on the couch and covered up together. I donât know when I started feeling
comfortable enough to snuggle up to him, but it just felt right. A few minutes later, he leaned over a little and pressed his lips against my collarbone, right between my shoulder and my neck. It was a quick kiss and I donât think he meant for it to be romantic. It was more like a thank-you gesture, without using actual words. But it made me feel all kinds of things.
Itâs been a few hours now and I keep touching that spot with my ďŹngers because I can still feel it.
I know it was probably the worst day of his life, Ellen. But it was one of
my favorites.
I feel really bad about that.
We watched Finding Nemo and when that part came up where Marlin was looking for Nemo and he was feeling really defeated, Dory said to him, âWhen life gets you down do you wanna know what youâve gotta do? . . .
Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.â
Atlas grabbed my hand when Dory said that. He didnât hold it like a boyfriend holds his girlfriendâs hand. He squeezed it, like he was saying that was us. He was Marlin and I was Dory, and I was helping him swim.
âJust keep swimming,â I whispered to him.
âLily
Dear Ellen,
Iâm scared. So scared.
I like him a lot. Heâs all I think about when weâre together and I feel worried sick about him when weâre not. My life is beginning to revolve around him and thatâs not good, I know. But I canât help it and I donât know what to do about it, and now he might leave.
He left after we ďŹnished watching Finding Nemo yesterday and then when my parents went to bed, he crawled in my window last night. He had slept in my bed the night before because he was sick, and I know I shouldnât have done it, but I put his blankets in the washing machine right before I went to bed. He asked where his pallet was and I told him heâd have to sleep on the bed again because I wanted to wash his blankets and make sure they were clean so he wouldnât get sick again.
For a minute, it looked like he was going to go back out the window. But then he shut it and took off his shoes and crawled in the bed with me.
He wasnât sick anymore, but when he laid down I thought maybe I had gotten sick because my stomach felt queasy. But I wasnât sick. I just always
feel queasy when heâs that close to me.
We were facing each other on the bed when he said, âWhen do you turn sixteen?â
âTwo more months,â I whispered. We just kept staring at each other, and my heart was beating faster and faster. âWhen do you turn nineteen?â I asked, just trying to make conversation so he couldnât hear how hard I was
breathing.
âNot until October,â he said.
I nodded. I wondered why he was curious about my age and it made me wonder what he thought about ďŹfteen-year-olds. Did he look at me like I was just a little kid? Like a little sister? I was almost sixteen, and two and a half years apart in age isnât that bad. Maybe when two people are ďŹfteen and eighteen, it might seem a little too far apart. But once I turn sixteen, I bet no one would even think twice about a two-and-a-half-year age difference.
âI need to tell you something,â he said.
I held my breath, not knowing what he was going to say.
âI got in touch with my uncle today. My mom and I used to live with him in Boston. He told me once he gets back from his work trip I can stay with him.â
I should have been so happy for him in that moment. I should have smiled and told him congratulations. But I felt all of the immaturity of my age when I closed my eyes and felt sorry for myself.
âAre you going?â I asked.
He shrugged. âI donât know. I wanted to talk to you about it ďŹrst.â
He was so close to me on the bed, I could feel the warmth of his breath. I also noticed he smelled like mint, and it made me wonder if he uses bottled water to brush his teeth before he comes over here. I always send him home every day with lots of water.
I brought my hand up to the pillow and started pulling at a feather sticking out of it. When I got it all the way out, I twisted it between my ďŹngers. âI donât know what to say, Atlas. Iâm happy you have a place to
stay. But what about school?â
âI could ďŹnish down there,â he said.
I nodded. It sounded like he already made up his mind. âWhen are you leaving?â
I wondered how far away Boston is. Itâs probably a few hours, but thatâs a whole world away when you donât own a car.
âI donât know for sure that I am.â
I dropped the feather back onto the pillow and brought my hand to my side. âWhatâs stopping you? Your uncle is offering you a place to stay.
Thatâs good, right?â
He tightened his lips together and nodded. Then he picked up the feather Iâd been playing with and he started twisting it between his ďŹngers. He laid it back down on the pillow and then he did something I wasnât expecting.
He moved his ďŹngers to my lips and he touched them.
God, Ellen. I thought I was gonna die right then and there. It was the most Iâd ever felt inside my body at one time. He kept his ďŹngers there for a few seconds, and he said, âThank you, Lily. For everything.â He moved his ďŹngers up and through my hair, and then he leaned forward and planted a kiss on my forehead. I was breathing so hard, I had to open my mouth to catch more air. I could see his chest moving just as hard as mine was. He looked down at me and I watched as his eyes went right to my mouth. âHave you ever been kissed, Lily?â
I shook my head no and tilted my face up to his because I needed him to change that right then and there or I wasnât gonna be able to breathe.
Thenâalmost as if I were made of eggshellsâhe lowered his mouth to mine and just rested it there. I didnât know what to do next, but I didnât care. I didnât care if we just stayed like that all night and never even moved our mouths, it was everything.
His lips closed over mine and I could kind of feel his hand shaking. I did what he was doing and started to move my lips like he was. I felt the tip of his tongue brush across my lips once and I thought my eyes were about to roll back in my head. He did it again, and then a third time, so I ďŹnally did it, too. When our tongues touched for the ďŹrst time, I kind of smiled a little, because Iâd thought about my ďŹrst kiss a lot. Where it would be, who it would be with. Never in a million years did I imagine it would feel like this.
He pushed me on my back and pressed his hand against my cheek and kept kissing me. It just got better and better as I grew more comfortable. My favorite moment was when he pulled back for a second and looked down at me, then came back even harder.
I donât know how long we kissed. A long time. So long, my mouth started to hurt and my eyes couldnât stay open. When we fell asleep, Iâm pretty sure
his mouth was still touching mine.
We didnât talk about Boston again.
I still donât know if heâs leaving.
âLily
⢠⢠â˘
Dear Ellen,
I need to apologize to you.
Itâs been a week since Iâve written to you and a week since Iâve watched your show. Donât worry, I still record it so youâll get the ratings, but every day we get off the bus, Atlas takes a quick shower and then we make out.
Every day.
Itâs awesome.
I donât know what it is about him, but I feel so comfortable with him.
Heâs so sweet and thoughtful. He never does anything I donât feel comfortable with, but so far he hasnât tried anything I donât feel comfortable with.
Iâm not sure how much I should divulge here, since you and I have never met in person. But let me just say that if heâs ever wondered what my boobs
feel like . . .
Now he knows.
I canât for the life of me ďŹgure out how people function from day to day when they like someone this much. If it were up to me, we would kiss all day and all night and do nothing in between except maybe talk a little. He tells funny stories. I love it when heâs in a talkative mood because it doesnât happen very often, but he uses his hands a lot. He smiles a lot, too, and I love his smile even more than I love his kiss. And sometimes I just tell him to shut up and stop smiling or kissing or talking so I can stare at him. I like looking at his eyes. Theyâre so blue that he could be standing across a room and a person could tell how blue his eyes were. The only thing I donât like about kissing him sometimes is when he closes his eyes.
And no. We still havenât talked about Boston.
âLily Dear Ellen,
Yesterday afternoon when we were riding the bus, Atlas kissed me. It wasnât anything new to us because we had kissed a lot by this point, but itâs the ďŹrst time he ever did it in public. When weâre together everything else just seems to fade away, so I donât think he even thought about other people
noticing. But Katie noticed. She was sitting in the seat behind us and I heard her say, âGross,â as soon as he leaned over and kissed me.
She was talking to the girl next to her when she said, âI canât believe Lily lets him touch her. He wears the same clothes almost every day.â
Ellen, I was so mad. I also felt awful for Atlas. He pulled away from me and I could tell what she said bothered him. I started to turn around to yell at her for judging someone she doesnât even know, but he grabbed my hand
and shook his head no.
âDonât, Lily,â he said.
So I didnât.
But for the rest of the bus ride, I was so angry. I was angry that Katie would say something so ignorant just to hurt someone she thought was beneath her. I was also hurt that Atlas appeared to be used to comments like that.
I didnât want him to think I was embarrassed that anyone saw him kiss me. I know Atlas better than any of them do, and I know what a good person he is, no matter what his clothes look like or that he used to smell before he started using my shower.
I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and then rested my head on his
shoulder.
âYou know what?â I said to him.
He slid his ďŹngers through mine and squeezed my hand. âWhat?â
âYouâre my favorite person.â
I felt him laugh a little and it made me smile.
âOut of how many people?â he asked.
âAll of them.â
He kissed the top of my head and said, âYouâre my favorite person, too, Lily. By a long shot.â
When the bus came to a stop on my street, he didnât let go of my hand when we started to walk off. He was in front of me in the aisle and I was walking behind him, so he didnât see it when I turned around and ďŹipped off Katie.
I probably shouldnât have done it, but the look on her face made it worth it.
When we got to my house, he took the house key out of my hand and unlocked my front door. It was weird, seeing how comfortable he is at my house now. He walked in and locked the door behind us. Thatâs when we noticed the electricity in the house wasnât working. I looked out the window
and saw a utility truck down the street working on the power lines, so that meant we couldnât watch your show. I wasnât too upset because it meant we would probably just make out for an hour and a half.
âDoes your oven run off gas or electricity?â he asked.
âGas,â I said, a little confused that he was asking about our oven.
He kicked off his shoes (which were really just a pair of my fatherâs old shoes) and he started walking toward the kitchen. âIâm going to make you
something,â he said.
âYou know how to cook?â
He opened the refrigerator and started moving things around. âYep. I probably love to cook as much as you love to grow things.â He took a few things out of the refrigerator and preheated the oven. I leaned against the counter and watched him. He wasnât even looking at a recipe. He was just pouring things into bowls and mixing them without even using a measuring cup.
I had never seen my father lift a ďŹnger in the kitchen. Iâm pretty sure he wouldnât even know how to preheat our oven. I kind of thought most men were like that, but watching Atlas work his way around my kitchen proved me wrong.
âWhat are you making?â I asked him. I pushed my hands on the island and hoisted myself onto it.
âCookies,â he said. He walked the bowl over to me and stuck a spoon in the mixture. He brought the spoon up to my mouth and I tasted it. One of my weaknesses is cookie dough, and this was the best Iâd ever tasted.
âOh, wow,â I said, licking my lips.
He set the bowl down beside me and then leaned in and kissed me.
Cookie dough and Atlasâs mouth mixed together is like heaven, in case youâre wondering. I made a noise deep in my throat that let him know how much I liked the combination, and it made him laugh. But he didnât stop kissing me. He just laughed through the kiss and it completely melted my heart. A happy Atlas was near mind-blowing. It made me want to uncover every single thing about this world that he likes and give it all to him.
When he was kissing me, I wondered if I loved him. Iâve never had a boyfriend before and have nothing to compare my feelings to. In fact, Iâve never really wanted a boyfriend or a relationship until Atlas. Iâm not growing up in a household with a great example of how a man should treat someone he loves, so Iâve always held on to an unhealthy amount of distrust when it comes to relationships and other people.
There have been times Iâve wondered if I could ever allow myself to trust a guy. For the most part, I hate men because the only example I have is my father. But spending all this time with Atlas is changing me. Not in a huge way, I donât think. I still distrust most people. But Atlas is changing me enough to believe that maybe heâs an exception to the norm.
He stopped kissing me and picked up the bowl again. He walked it over to the opposite counter and started spooning dough onto two cookie sheets.
âYou want to know a trick to cooking with a gas oven?â he asked.
Iâm not sure I really ever cared about cooking before, but he somehow made me want to know everything he knew. It might have been how happy he looked when he talked about it.
âGas ovens have hot spots,â he said as he opened the oven door and put the cookie sheets inside. âYou have to be sure and rotate the pans so theyâll cook evenly.â He closed the door and pulled the oven mitt off his hand. He tossed it on the counter. âA pizza stone helps, too. If you just keep it in the oven, even when you arenât baking pizza, it helps eliminate the hot spots.â
He walked over to me and placed his hands on either side of me. The electricity kicked on right as he was pulling down the collar of my shirt. He kissed the spot on my shoulder he always loves kissing and slowly slid his hands up my back. I swear, sometimes when heâs not even here I can still feel his lips on my collarbone.
He was about to kiss me on the mouth when we heard a car pull into the driveway and the garage door start to open. I jumped off the island, looking around the kitchen frantically. His hands went up to my cheeks and he made me look at him.
âKeep an eye on the cookies. Theyâll be ďŹnished in about twenty minutes.â
He pressed his lips to mine and then released me, rushing to the living room to grab his backpack. He made it out the back door right when I heard the engine to my fatherâs car shut off.
I started gathering all the ingredients together when my father walked into the kitchen from the garage. He looked around and then saw the light
on in the oven.
âAre you cooking?â he asked.
I nodded because my heart was beating so fast, I was scared heâd hear the trembling in my voice if I responded out loud. I scrubbed for a moment at a spot on the counter that was perfectly clean. I cleared my throat and said, âCookies. Iâm baking cookies.â
He set his briefcase down on the kitchen table and then walked to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer.
âThe electricity has been out,â I said. âI was bored so I decided to bake while I waited for it to come back on.â
My father sat down at the table and spent the next ten minutes asking me questions about school and if Iâd thought about going to college.
Occasionally when it was just the two of us, I saw glimpses of a how a normal relationship with a father could be. Sitting at the kitchen table with him discussing colleges and career choices and high school. As much as I hated him most of the time, I still longed for more of these moments with him. If he could just always be the guy he was capable of being in these moments, things would be so much different. For all of us.
I rotated the cookies like Atlas had said to do and when they were ďŹnished, I pulled them out of the oven. I took one off the cookie sheet and handed it to my father. I hated that I was being nice to him. It almost felt like I was wasting one of Atlasâs cookies.
âWow,â my father said. âThese are great, Lily.â
I forced a thank-you, even though I didnât make them. I couldnât very well tell him that, though.
âTheyâre for school so you can only have one,â I lied. I waited until the rest of them cooled and then I put them in a Tupperware container and took them to my room. I didnât even want to try one without Atlas, so I waited until later last night when he came over.
âYou should have tried one when they were hot,â he said. âThatâs when theyâre the best.â
âI didnât want to eat them without you,â I said. We sat on the bed with our backs against the wall and proceeded to eat half the bowl of cookies. I told him they were delicious, but failed to tell him they were by far the greatest cookies Iâd ever eaten. I didnât want to inďŹate his ego. I kind of liked how humble he was.
I tried to grab at another one, but he pulled the bowl away and put the lid back on it. âIf you eat too many youâll make yourself sick and you wonât
like my cookies anymore.â
I laughed. âImpossible.â
He took a drink of water and then stood up, facing the bed. âI made you something,â he said, reaching into his pocket.
âMore cookies?â I asked.
He smiled and shook his head, then held out a ďŹst. I lifted my hand and he dropped something hard in the palm of my hand. It was a small, ďŹat outline of a heart, about two inches long, carved out of wood.
I rubbed my thumb over it, trying not to smile too big. It wasnât an anatomically correct heart, but it also didnât look like the hand-drawn hearts. It was uneven and hollow in the middle.
âYou made this?â I asked, looking up at him.
He nodded. âI carved it with an old whittling knife I found at the house.â
The ends of the heart werenât connected. They just curved in a little, leaving a little space at the top of the heart. I didnât even know what to say.
I felt him sit back down on the bed but I couldnât stop looking at it long enough to even thank him.
âI carved it out of a branch,â he said, whispering. âFrom the oak tree in your backyard.â
I swear, Ellen. I never thought I could love something so much. Or maybe what I was feeling wasnât for the gift, but for him. I closed my ďŹst around the heart and then leaned over and kissed him so hard, he fell back onto the bed. I threw my leg over him and straddled him and he grabbed my waist and grinned against my mouth.
âIâm gonna carve you a damn house out of that oak tree if this is the reward I get,â he whispered.
I laughed. âYou have to stop being so perfect,â I told him. âYouâre already my favorite person but now youâre making it really unfair to all the other humans because no one will ever be able to catch up to you.â
He brought his hand to the back of my head and rolled me until I was on my back and he was the one on top. âThen my plan is working,â he said, right before kissing me again.
I held on to the heart while we kissed, wanting to believe it was a gift for no reason at all. But part of me was scared it was a gift to remember him by when he leaves for Boston.
I didnât want to remember him. If I had to remember him, it would mean he wasnât a part of my life anymore.
I donât want him to move to Boston, Ellen. I know thatâs selďŹsh of me because he canât keep living in that house. I donât know what Iâm more afraid might happen. Watching him leave or selďŹshly begging him not to go.
I know we need to talk about it. Iâll ask him about Boston tonight when he comes over. I just didnât want to ask him last night because it was a
really perfect day.
âLily
Dear Ellen,
Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.
Heâs moving to Boston.
I donât really feel like talking about it.
âLily Dear Ellen,
This is going to be a big one for my mother to hide.
My father is usually pretty cognizant of hitting her where it wonât leave a visible bruise. The last thing he probably wants is for people in the town to know what he does to her. Iâve seen him kick her a few times, choke her, hit her on the back and the stomach, pull her hair. The few times heâs hit her on the face, itâs always just been a slap, so the marks wouldnât stay for long.
But never have I seen him do what he did last night.
It was really late when they got home. It was a weekend, so he and my mom went to some community function. My father has a real estate company and heâs also the town mayor, so they have to do things in the public a lot like go to charity dinners. Which is ironic, since my father hates charities. But I guess he has to save face.
Atlas was already in my room when they got home. I could hear them ďŹghting as soon as they walked through the front door. A lot of the conversation was mufďŹed, but for the most part, it sounded like my father was accusing her of ďŹirting with some man.
Now I know my mother, Ellen. She would never do something like that. If anything, a guy probably looked at her and it made my father jealous. My mother is really beautiful.
I heard him call her a whore and then I heard the ďŹrst blow. I started to climb out of my bed but Atlas pulled me back and told me not to go in there, that I might get hurt. I told him it actually helps sometimes. That when I go in there, my father backs off.
Atlas tried to talk me out of it, but ďŹnally I got up and went out into the
living room.
Ellen.
I just . . .
He was on top of her.
They were on the couch and he had his hand around her throat, but his other hand was pulling up her dress. She was trying to ďŹght him off and I just stood there, frozen. She kept begging him to get off her and then he hit her right across the face and told her to shut up. Iâll never forget his words when he said, âYou want attention? Iâll give you some fucking attention.â
And thatâs when she got real still and stopped ďŹghting him. I heard her crying, and then she said, âPlease be quiet. Lily is here.â
She said, âPlease be quiet.â
Please be quiet while you rape me, dear.
Ellen, I didnât know one human was capable of feeling so much hate inside one heart. And Iâm not even talking about my father. Iâm talking about me.
I walked straight to the kitchen and I opened a drawer. I grabbed the biggest knife I could ďŹnd and . . . I donât know how to explain it. It was like I wasnât even in my own body. I could see myself walking across the kitchen with the knife in my hand, and I knew I wasnât going to use it. I just wanted something bigger than myself that could scare him away from her.
But right before I made it out of the kitchen, two arms went around my waist and picked me up from behind. I dropped the knife, and my father didnât hear it but my mother did. We locked eyes as Atlas carried me back to my bedroom. When we were back inside my room, I just started hitting him in the chest, trying to get back out there to her. I was crying and doing everything I could to get him out of my way, but he wouldnât move.
He just wrapped his arms around me and said, âLily, calm down.â He kept saying it over and over, and he held me there for a long time until I accepted that he wasnât gonna let me go back out there. He wasnât gonna let me have that knife.
He walked over to the bed and grabbed his jacket and started putting on his shoes. âWeâll go next door,â he said. âWeâll call the police.â
The police.
My mother had warned me not to call the police in the past. She said it could jeopardize my fatherâs career. But in all honesty, I didnât care at that point. I didnât care that he was the mayor or that everyone who loved him didnât know the awful side of him. The only thing I cared about was helping my mother, so I pulled on my jacket and went to the closet for a pair of shoes. When I stepped out of my closet, Atlas was staring at my bedroom
door.
It was opening.
My mother stepped inside and quickly shut it, locking it behind her. Iâll never forget what she looked like. She had blood coming down from her lip.
Her eye was already starting to swell, and she had a clump of hair just resting on her shoulder. She looked at Atlas and then me.
I didnât even take a moment to feel scared that she caught me in my room with a boy. I didnât care about that. I was just worried about her. I walked over to her and grabbed her hands and walked her to my bed. I brushed the hair off her shoulder and then from her forehead.
âHeâs gonna go call the police, Mom. Okay?â
Her eyes grew real wide and she started shaking her head. âNo,â she said. She looked over at Atlas and said, âYou canât. No.â
He was already at the window about to leave, so he stopped and looked at me.
âHeâs drunk, Lily,â she said. âHe heard your door shut, so he went to our bedroom. He stopped. If you call the police, itâll just make it worse, believe me. Just let him sleep it off, itâll be better tomorrow.â
I shook my head and could feel the tears stinging my eyes. âMom, he was trying to rape you!â
She ducked her head and winced when I said that. She shook her head again and said, âItâs not like that, Lily. Weâre married, and sometimes marriage is just . . . youâre too young to understand it.â
It got really quiet for a minute, and then I said. âI hope to hell I never do.â
Thatâs when she started to cry. She just held her head in her hands and she started to sob and all I could do was wrap my arms around her and cry with her. Iâd never seen her this upset. Or this hurt. Or this scared. It broke
my heart, Ellen.
It broke me.
When she was ďŹnished crying, I looked around the room and Atlas had left. We went to the kitchen and I helped her clean up her lip and her eye.
She never did say anything about him being there. Not one thing. I waited for her to tell me I was grounded, but she never did. I realized that maybe she didnât acknowledge it because thatâs what she does. Things that hurt her just get swept under the rug, never to be brought up again.
âLily Dear Ellen,
I think Iâm ready to talk about Boston now.
He left today.
Iâve shufďŹed my deck of cards so many times, my hands hurt. Iâm scared if I donât get out how I feel on paper, Iâll go crazy holding it all in.
Our last night didnât go over so well. We kissed a lot at ďŹrst, but we were both too sad to really care about it. For the second time in two days, he told me he changed his mind and that he wasnât leaving. He didnât want to leave me alone in this house. But Iâve lived with these parents for almost sixteen years. It was silly of him to turn down a home in favor of being homeless, just because of me. We both knew that, but it still hurt.
I tried to not be so sad about it, so when we were lying there, I asked him to tell me about Boston. I told him maybe one day when I got out of school, I could go there.
He got this look in his eye when he started talking about it. A look Iâd never seen. Sort of like he was talking about heaven. He told me about how everyone has the greatest accents there. Instead of car, they say cah. He must not realize that he sometimes says his râs like that, too. He said he lived there from the ages of nine until he was fourteen, so I guess maybe he picked up a little bit of the accent.
He told me about how his uncle lives in an apartment building with the coolest rooftop deck.
âA lot of apartments have them,â he said. âSome even have pools.â
Plethora, Maine, probably didnât even have a building that was tall enough for a rooftop deck. I wondered what it would feel like to be that high up. I asked him if he ever went up there and he said yes. That when he was younger, sometimes he would go to the roof and just sit up there and think while he looked out over the city.
He told me about the food. I already knew he liked to cook but I had no idea how much passion he had for it. I guess because he doesnât have a stove or a kitchen, so other than the cookies he baked me, heâs never really talked about cooking before.
He told me about the harbor and how, before his mother remarried, she used to take him ďŹshing out there. âI mean, Boston isnât any different from any other big city, I guess,â he said. âThereâs not a lot that makes it stand out. Itâs just . . . I donât know. Thereâs a vibe. A really good energy. When people say they live in Boston, theyâre proud of it. I miss that sometimes.â
I ran my ďŹngers through his hair and said, âWell, you make it sound like the best place in the world. Like everything is better in Boston.â
He looked at me and his eyes were sad when he said. âEverything is almost better in Boston. Except the girls. Boston doesnât have you.â
That made me blush. He kissed me real sweet and then I said to him, âBoston doesnât have me yet. Someday Iâll move there and Iâll ďŹnd you.â
He made me promise. Said if I moved to Boston, everything really would be better there and it would be the best city in the world.
We kissed some more. And did other things that I wonât bore you with.
Although, thatâs not to say they were boring.
They were not.
But then this morning I had to tell him goodbye. And he held me and kissed me so much, I thought I might die if he let go.
But I didnât die. Because he let go and here I am. Still living. Still
breathing.
Just barely.
âLily
I ďŹip to the next page, but then slam the book shut. Thereâs only one more entry and I donât know that I really feel like reading it right now. Or ever. I put the journal back in my closet, knowing that my chapter with Atlas is over. Heâs happy now.
Iâm happy now.
Time can deďŹnitely heal all wounds.
Or at least most of them.
I turn off my lamp and then pick up my phone to plug it in. I have two missed text messages from Ryle and one from my mother.
Ryle: Hey. Naked Truth commencing in 3 . . . 2 . . .
Ryle: I was worried that being in a relationship would add to my
responsibilities. Thatâs why Iâve avoided them my whole life. I already
have enough on my plate, and seeing the stress my parentsâ marriage
seemed to cause them, and the failed marriages of some of my friends, I
wanted no part in something like that. But after tonight, I realized that
maybe a lot of people are just doing it wrong. Because whatâs happening
between us doesnât feel like a responsibility. It feels like a reward. And
Iâll fall asleep wondering what I did to deserve it.
I pull my phone to my chest and smile. Then I screenshot the text because Iâm keeping it forever. I open up the third text message.
Mom: A doctor, Lily? AND your own business? I want to be you when I
grow up.
I screen-shot that one, too.