Amanda Vs The Universe Read online

  Everyone stared at her for three extra-long seconds. Then Kyle let out an exasperated noise. “Seriously? You think leaving the sunburst on there will lure the kid back here? And what happens then? You invite him in for tea and cookies?”

  “Coffee,” Geoff said.

  I held in a wild laugh. This was totally weird, like the world was tilting. Cady wanted to draw a tagger out of hiding? Yeah, that would work.

  Cady looked like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to laugh or argue. “If I get the chance to talk to the person, I might invite him or her in.”

  “Oh, great.” Kyle nodded. “Just show them all the stuff you have inside that they might want to steal.”

  “You sound just like your mother,” Cady said with a bemused look.

  “And the problem with that is?”

  “You don’t trust people,” she said. “Sometimes you need to give people the benefit of the doubt.”

  He pursed his lips. “To someone who’s been defacing your property.” His voice came out flat and emotionless.

  Cady opened her mouth to respond, but Geoff cut in. “I think y’all are getting ahead of yourselves. The chance this person will come back is pretty slim, but if he slash she slash it does, we might actually be able to catch them.”

  Kyle burst out with a laugh of disbelief. “Thanks for the support, man.”

  Geoff smiled. “You’re welcome.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Cady asked.

  “We camp out,” Geoff said. “Maybe more than one night. You know, after the wall is repainted. What self-respecting tagger can resist a clean, blank surface?”

  “A camp out,” Kyle said dully.

  But Geoff went on as though he hadn’t spoken. “We have four more people showing up this afternoon. We’ll have plenty of people to keep watch if some need to sleep.”

  “Right,” I said. “Taggers are going to show up while we’re out here having a party.”

  “It might work,” Molly said. “It doesn’t have to be a party.”

  “With Geoff around?” I asked.

  She laughed.

  “Let’s go back in to discuss the possibilities,” Cady said.

  Geoff and Molly followed her as she headed inside, Geoff yapping on about sleeping bags and paintball guns.

  Eight

  I turned to Kyle. “Sorry about that.”

  He was scowling at the graffitied wall. “About what?”

  “My brother. Making everything worse.”

  He sighed. “No, it’s just my aunt and her gullibility.”

  “Yeah, well. She does see the best in people.”

  He rubbed his forehead. “And it drives me nuts sometimes.”

  “But that’s who she is.”

  “I know.”

  “When are you going to repaint?”

  He shrugged. “Probably in the next couple of days.”

  I knew I needed to be careful. That I shouldn’t get to know Kyle any better than I already did. But it still didn’t stop me from saying, “I can help. I mean … if you want.”

  “Thanks,” he said, sounding distracted. Then he forced a smile. “Come on. Let’s go see what great idea they’ve come up with.”

  We walked together into the house, and I pushed away the thought that I was probably going to regret my offer.

  ***

  My mother had just pulled a pan of lasagna from the oven when Kenzie, Dylan, Gabby, and Noah arrived. For several minutes, the kitchen and front hallway were a battleground of hellos and hugs. I stayed near the stove so I could pretend to be too busy to hug. If I hugged Kenzie, who was my cousin, then her boyfriend Dylan would hug me too. And then I’d be standing there not wanting to hug Gabby and Noah, and it would look obvious, and then … ugh. Awkwardness would win.

  Instead, I removed the other pan of lasagna and smiled at people.

  Kenzie came over anyway. “Put that down so I can hug you. It seems like forever since we’ve seen each other.”

  “I think it was Christmas,” I said, placing the pan on top of the stove.

  She hugged me longer than I was expecting, blond hair from her messy bun tickling my cheek. I patted her on the back with the big oven mitts, and she chuckled. “Are you tapping out?”

  “Yeah. I can barely breathe when you hug me.” Which wasn’t true, but I didn’t want to make a big deal of the long hug.

  She ducked her head to look me in the eye. “Are you doing okay? I heard you’ve had a hard few months.”

  Oh, great. More people talking about me. I tugged off the oven mitts. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

  She considered me like she didn’t believe that for a minute. “Okay, but if you want to talk, I’m available.”

  Kenzie had really changed over the past couple of years of dating Dylan. She was a lot more willing to get into messy emotions, for one thing. But I wasn’t. “Thanks.” I gave her a brief, closed-mouth smile and dropped the mitts on the counter.

  Thankfully, my mother kicked people into gear. “Everyone! Go put your stuff away. We’re serving dinner in two minutes.”

  Geoff and Molly helped the others with all their bags, and they raced upstairs. I turned to Mom. “What do you need me to do?”

  She scanned the kitchen and long dining table that I’d set. “Pour water in the glasses and then cut up the bread. No, wait. First find your dad.”

  I racewalked down the hall and knocked on my parents’ bedroom door.

  “Come in,” Dad said.

  I found him sitting on the bed staring at his iPad through his reading glasses. He looked up blearily. “Am I in trouble for missing the greetings?”

  “No, but you will be if you don’t come help get dinner on the table.”

  “Okay.”

  I started to peek over the edge of his tablet, and he immediately pushed the off button. I raised my eyebrows. “Hiding something?”

  He stood and stretched. “Just studying some information.”

  “That tells me absolutely nothing.”

  “That’s because it’s a secret.”

  Alarm bells went off. “Is it the secret? The event you and Mom are arranging?”

  “Never mind,” he said with a grin. “Let’s go help her.”

  We headed back to the kitchen. That narrowed down which of his electronics I needed to search. I’d just have to pay attention tonight to when my parents might be occupied. I thought I knew Dad’s three main passwords and should be able to find out what was up. We threw ourselves into the dinner bustle of activity.

  ***

  After the meal cleanup, I headed into the living room with my piece of key lime pie. Geoff, Gabby, and Noah had gotten there before me. I hesitated half a step—they were the last people I wanted to be alone with—but then kept going. I had to. It would’ve been even more uncomfortable for me to rush out of the room like they had the plague.

  Gabby and Noah shared a loveseat, and Geoff lounged across one of the plush chairs, staring at his phone. His piece of chocolate meringue pie waited uneaten on the coffee table.

  I snagged the chair opposite him. Everybody else was going to have to fit on the couch or the floor.

  Gabby, her long dark curls swept back in a ponytail, smiled at me. She wore shorts and a bright yellow T-shirt that made her warm brown skin glow. “That’s a pretty blouse,” she said, taking a bite of pie.

  I looked down at my blue sleeveless top. It was one of my favorites with its delicate flowers embroidered along the hem. The tightness inside my chest relaxed a little. “Thanks.”

  “She wore it to impress a boy,” Geoff said, still studying his phone.

  Oh, no. He didn’t mean Noah, did he? My face warmed. “What are you talking about?”

  “Kyle,” he said with a hint of humor in his voice. “You two were flirting over cookies this afternoon.”

  One of these days, I was going to kill Geoff. At least he didn’t think I’d dressed nicely for Noah. But Kyle wasn’t much better. I opened my
mouth to respond when Molly spoke from the doorway.

  “No, they weren’t.” She strolled to the coffee table where she placed her dessert plate and then sat on the floor near Geoff.

  He set his phone on the arm of the chair. “Yeah, they were. ‘Share a cookie with me. Giggle, giggle.’”

  “Who’s Kyle?” Noah asked, his blue eyes bright with interest.

  Molly shook her head at Geoff. “Didn’t happen like that and you know it.”

  Gosh, I just loved Molly so much. But something felt a tad wrong. Like she’d taken the words I needed to say. “Thanks, Mol.”

  “Sure,” she said, and bit into her chocolate pie. A humming noise came from her mouth. “Wow, that’s good.”

  Noah raised a hand. “Hey, who’s Kyle?”

  I needed to change the subject before anyone else jumped in. “Kyle is Cady Sanders’ nephew. He’s staying with her this summer. He’s helping—”

  “Is Cady the pottery woman?” Gabby asked.

  “Yup,” Geoff said. “With the swoony nephew.”

  I sighed. “Shut up, Geoff.”

  “Somebody has a swoony nephew?” Kenzie said as she and Dylan entered, their tall blondness practically filling the room.

  Crap. So much for changing the subject.

  “Cady Sanders does,” Geoff said.

  “Oh, really,” Kenzie said, nudging Dylan. “I probably need to meet him.”

  Dylan didn’t let her teasing bother him. After they sat on the couch, he kissed her on the cheek. “No you don’t.”

  “Kyle has been a big help to Cady since the taggers hit her place,” I said.

  “Taggers?” Kenzie asked through a mouthful of pie.

  And subject successfully changed. “Yeah, they’ve been hitting businesses around town with profanity. Cady’s place has been hit twice.”

  Geoff laughed. “Man, you should see it. Those guys left nothing to the imagination.”

  I took a bite of pie, relaxing as the tangy taste washed over my tongue. Let Geoff tell them all about it. Then he could progress to the camp-out idea and we’d be far away from discussing whether Kyle was swoony or not. He was, but that wasn’t the point. I couldn’t be interested in him. Not with my heart barely healed from Alex.

  My parents came in and squeezed themselves onto the couch with Kenzie and Dylan. Kenzie had always been close to my mom. I could remember when I was little listening to her saying, “Aunt Jenny” so many times that I wanted to do it too. My mother had a hard time explaining to me that she wasn’t my aunt. Yeah, I’d been jealous, but not anymore. Kenzie always distracted my parents when she was around. And that was usually good for me.

  Geoff finally got around to explaining the plan to catch the graffiti guys by camping out.

  “But wait,” Kenzie said. “How can you possibly know what night to camp out? I like Cady and everything, but I’m not spending the vacation camping out in her backyard for two weeks.”

  “You’re not gonna be here for two weeks,” Geoff said.

  Gabby, Noah, and Molly laughed. Probably because they knew he was deliberately missing the point.

  “Ha, ha,” Kenzie said. “But answer the question.”

  With a loud slurping noise, Geoff inhaled a big hunk of meringue off the top of his pie. Man, he knew how to build the anticipation of his audience. He licked his lips and smiled. “We just spend a couple of nights there. Not in a row necessarily. And if the taggers don’t come back, then they don’t. It’s not really our problem. I was just trying to come up with ideas to help Cady. She wants to somehow get in touch with one of them.”

  My mother frowned. “She does? What for?”

  Molly chimed in. “She thinks the person has artistic talent. I do too. She wants to encourage them.”

  “Humph,” Dad said. “Good luck with that.”

  Mom patted his knee absently. “So she’s going for rehabilitation.”

  “Sounds like it,” Geoff said.

  “You know,” Mom said slowly, “Cady has had a difficult time lately. Maybe we should invite her and her nephew over for dinner.”

  “Amanda would love that,” Geoff said, an evil grin on his face.

  I ignored him. My mother’s voice sounded weird; she was definitely planning something. She nudged my dad with her shoulder.

  He looked up from scraping the last bits of key lime crust from his plate. “Uh, dinner, sure. Whatever you want.”

  “No, honey. I mean, we should invite them over for dinner.”

  He stared blankly at her for several moments. Finally, his expression cleared. “Oh, do you think so?”

  “Watch out,” Kenzie said. “They’re speaking in code again.”

  Mom gave one decisive nod. “I do. It’ll make things even more interesting.”

  “Does this have anything to do with the top secret big event y’all are planning this year?” Geoff asked.

  “Amanda,” Dad said, trying to look stern.

  “What?” I realized I was scraping my plate just like my father. I stopped. “I just wanted to know if Geoff knew anything. You didn’t tell me not to talk about it.”

  Kenzie leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. “Ooo. What’s it gonna be this time? Midnight karaoke? A party with sack races?”

  “Don’t mock,” Geoff said. “I’m good at those.”

  Laughter rang out.

  “We aren’t telling just yet,” Mom said when the room had quieted down.

  “Just tell me one thing,” Noah said. “It’s not another play, is it?”

  I slid my plate onto the coffee table, keeping my head down. That play two years ago was one of the bad memories about being around Noah and Gabby.

  My mom chuckled. “No, not a play.”

  “When are you gonna tell us?” Kenzie asked. Dylan, looking totally relaxed, ran his hand across the curve of her back.

  “In a day or two,” Dad said. “We have to get a few things firmed up.”

  “Will it include zombies?” Gabby asked quietly.

  “No, dear,” my mother said. “No zombies for you to worry about that. But enough about that. We need to decide what to play tonight. We have a couple of new board games to show y’all.”

  I tuned out. I wasn’t going to play. I needed time to myself. Plus, there was Dad’s iPad to break into. A sudden thought penetrated my dessert haze. What if they told Gamma what they were planning? The chance seemed to be about fifty-fifty. But if she knew, I might be able to weasel it out of her. Time for a phone call.

  Nine

  It took five rings for Gamma to pick up. I knew I was getting obsessive about counting rings, but if it took a really long time for her to answer, then something might be wrong. “Greetings,” she said.

  “Hey, Gamma! How’re you doing? You sound like you’re feeling better.”

  She let out a husky chuckle. “That could be because you’re calling earlier in the day than you usually do.”

  “Oh, right. So you’re still sick?” How many days had it been? Five or six?

  “Yes, but I’m definitely feeling better. I only lost my voice for one day. It was the strangest thing.” She let out a succession of short coughs.

  “Gamma, are you fibbing about being well?” Fibbing was a Gamma word, and when I talked to her, I liked to strengthen our bond by sounding like her as much as possible.

  “I’m not telling fibs,” she said. “Other than the annoying coughs, I’m truly feeling better.”

  I paced the room from my door to the window while I told her about the last couple of days. “Everyone is here now, except you and Haley. It still feels wrong.”

  “It does to me too, dear.” Muffled coughing sounded.

  I probably should cut this short so she didn’t irritate her voice. But I also needed info. “So, I have a question. You know how Mom and Dad always like to have some big event while we’re here?”

  “Yes, and is that your question?” A whispery laugh came through my phone’s speaker.

 
; “Ha, ha,” I said. “No, my question is, do you have any idea what they’re planning? They won’t tell us. They’re saying it’s a surprise.”

  “Hmm. Let me think.” She didn’t speak for a few moments; a TV show with canned laughter played in the background. “I don’t know for certain, but last month they were talking about comedians.”

  Huh? “What about them?”

  “That it would be fun to set up a comedy club while they were in Ruidoso.”

  Excuse me? “That’s strange. What do you think they meant?”

  “Well, I asked if they planned to attend such a place, but your mother said they wanted the comedians to come to the house. But then your father said there were plenty of comedians at the house already.”

  A chill ran across my shoulders. Would my parents really try to make us pretend to do a comedy club? How would that work, exactly? “I hope they aren’t really going to try that.”

  “You know what your parents are like.” Her voice had grown even more raspy.

  I dropped onto my bed. “Yes, I do.”

  “Don’t worry though, dear. They may decide not to. It sounds like it would take a lot of effort. Besides, I never heard them speak of it other than that one time.”

  “I hope they don’t. I really, really don’t want to be involved in something like that. Geoff is the funny one, not me.”

  “Then tell them you don’t want to participate.”

  It wasn’t that easy. If I told them I didn’t want to do it, they’d get that super disappointed look that meant I’d be letting down the family. I didn’t want to deal with guilt right now on top of everything else. Words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. “Could you tell them for me?”

  Gamma coughed again and then cleared her throat. “I think not. I learned long ago your parents don’t listen to me very often. I believe you can convincingly tell them how you feel about it, though. You’re a strong young lady. Stronger than you realize.”