Shadows of Yesterday

Chapter 23: The Unfathomable Opposite of Penguins and Polar Bears

That night, long after my attic conversation with Ben was over, I was sitting cross-legged in my bed when my phone rang. I was splitting my attention between the homework I hadn't gotten to finish this afternoon and the plate of assorted freezer food on my mattress, so the sound of my ringtone made me jump and drop my pencil. I picked up my cell to check the caller ID and chuckled. "Aspiring Idiot." I'd forgotten that I changed that.

"Hey, Liam, what's up?" I set my phone on my bed and put it on speaker.

"The sky," he replied easily.

I rolled my eyes with a slight smile. "Wow. I've never heard that one before. Master of comedy, right here."

He chuckled, and for some reason, that made me smile wider. "I know. SNL should hire me. My genius is going unappreciated in Mirton."

"And what awesome thing did I do for Mr. Genius to grace me with the sound of his unappreciated voice?"

"Something world changing, I'm sure." I heard some rustling from his end before he continued. "For real, though, I just wanted to call and check in. Our walk ended kind of abruptly earlier."

I sighed and sank back against my pillow, then grabbed my phone and placed it on top of my chest so Liam could still hear me. I wasn't exactly jumping for joy at the idea of telling him more reasons why I was a mess, but there was something about him that made it hard to resist. "I'm doing fine. All things considered."

More rustling. "And all things not considered?"

All things not considered?

My argument with Declan came back to me in full force. His stubborn anger. His childish behavior. The way he tried to threaten me into not following him, and the infuriating fact that he had left me to clean up his water mess... twice. My talk with Ben had cheered me up, sure, but all things not considered? "Pretty crappy," I admitted.

He gave me a sympathetic hum in response. "I believe it. How did things go after you got back?"

I crumpled up the sheet of graph paper by my side with all of its messy math equations and chucked it at the far wall of my bedroom. Disappointingly, it went about two feet and then fell uselessly to the carpet. Curse my weak arms. "Well, Declan was drunk and rambling nonsense. And being a six-foot one toddler with the temperament of a mule. And then Ben refused to talk about it--surprise, surprise. I'll let you make your own conclusions."

I chucked another paper ball out of sheer boredom. It joined the first one a short distance from my bed, so I sighed and took to twiddling my pencil around my fingers, instead.

Just as he started to respond, I heard a voice that could only be his dad start talking in the background. The only words I managed to pick up were, "worried," "stretched too thin," and the phrase, "Not trying to make you feel bad, kiddo."

Liam mumbled something back along the lines of, "I know, Dad," but apparently, that wasn't the end of the conversation, because he followed that up with, "Sorry, Jackie, I have to put you on hold real quick. I'll be back."

The call cut off, and I was left alone in the silence of my room once again, filled with confusion. Sure, parents fought with their kids all the time. I knew that better than anyone. But I had always assumed that Liam was pretty close with his dad. Every time I saw them interact when I visited their diner, they were full of hugs, fond smiles, and playful jokes. It was weird to watch after seeing my own family interact, but I had never seen them argue before. Unless that was what a healthy disagreement sounded like.

If that was the case, I wasn't sure I had ever witnessed one before.

He took me off hold when I was just finishing up the assignment I'd been working on when he called in the first place. I was zipping up my backpack and tossing it into the corner of my room when I suddenly heard him say, "Sorry about that. You still there?"