51 Nights

Chapter 3

Our normally quiet street seemed absolutely placid in the summer humidity. You could practically see the heat radiating off the blacktop in the late afternoon light. The golden rays cast a hazy blacker of light over everything. I closed my eyes and tried to picture what would be going on a few years ago, before the divorce. Mom would be inside, finishing up some work or maybe sitting on our porch and chatting on her phone. Dad would be mowing the lawn, maybe, or doing some gardening. I looked for a second at the sad, depleted garden that was left over, Dad's caring hands moved on to some other plot of land. The flowers that were looked over were so wilted that they brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't really explain it, but it seemed as though they were suffering from the divorce in the same way I was- as collateral damage.

A couple of girls who seemed about twelve were riding their bikes down the street, the only people in the whole neighborhood who seemed to not be put out by the heat. Their care free laughter lofted through the streets, their feet working furiously to keep up with each other. With a sigh, I closed the trunk, satisfied with the click it made as it locked, everything contained and in control.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out, answering on the first ring. "Hey, Emma," I say, trying to clear the tears from my voice.

"Happy birthday, Mads!" I heard her cheerful voice crackle through the line. "Thanks, Em," I say, leaning against my car. "So my mom ran into your mom earlier today in town, and she said that you're going to camp all summer! Is that true?"

"Yeah," I say dully, pulling at a loose thread on my jean shorts, "I go away tomorrow."

There was silence on the other end for a second. "So I'm guessing all our plans are canceled?" Emma says after a minute, and I groan internally. "Well- yeah, I guess. Sorry, Em. My mom's just making me go away 'cause of, like, the divorce or whatever. Just, like, ask Erin to go with you." Emma was my best friend, and we'd had a whole agenda of how to make this summer our best one yet. "Erin," Emma says, deflated, "She'd never leave me alone, like, ever." I laughed, because it was so true. Erin was known for being very clingy, and if you gave her an in at all she took as much as she could. "Emma, you do have other friends, you know that, right?" I say, jokingly. "Of course I have other friends, Mads, but I wanted to spend this summer with you." "I know, Em, but my mom's demanding I go away. Stuff's still really tense at home." I hear Emma breathe a sigh of admission on the other side. "Of course, I get it. Well... see you when you get home, I guess. Love you, Mads." "Love you, Em. See you soon." I clicked to end the call, and shoved the phone back into my pocket.

It never really occurred to me to tell Emma the truth about my road trip plans, even though I'd told her virtually everything else about my life. The idea seemed to raw, too new and too easily given up that I wanted to keep it all to myself for now. I was too afraid of failure to let someone else worry with me. I had learned from experience that it's not fair to thrust someone else into a situation that isn't about them but could potentially cause them harm.

I padded back into the house while tying my hair up into a ponytail, lifting the sweaty hairs off the nape of my neck.

"I thought we could go out to dinner tonight," my mom called from the kitchen, where she was sorting through some mail, "you pick the place."

"Uh," I went through a mental inventory of the restaurants in Roswell, but none of them stood out as my favorite. "I don't care, wherever you want," I said, tapping my fingers against the banister in no particular pattern.

"Alright," my mom said, "if you're sure." She slit open an envelope and pulled out it's contents. "Maybe I'll take you into Atlanta. Go get dressed, we'll leave in a few."