The Last Year of Innocence

Chapter Six

Kara:

Kara had a plan.

Just as he’d done all week, Ethan avoided them at the football game on Friday night. While Solomon smiled and waved at them, Ethan hadn’t even looked their way. Without warning, he’d gone from being interested in her to pretending she didn’t exist and Kara finally had enough, which was where her plan came in.

            The plan came to her during a fitful Sunday night sleep. She was going to confront Ethan and demand the truth. It was a simple enough plan, but there was one hitch. She needed to find some way to confront him that would make it impossible to get away from her. It was that wrinkle in the plan that left her tossing and turning Sunday night, and she’d just about given up when she had a stroke of sleep deprived brilliance. She’d have a delivery sent to him that he had to go to the administration building to pick up, and she’d wait there for him. When he showed up for his delivery, Kara would step out of the shadows and confront him. It was brilliant.

            As Kara expected, Ethan was his usual elusive self on Monday, making her surer than ever she had to follow through with her plan. Kara waited until there was a class she didn’t have with Shirelle before rushing to the pay phone as soon as it ended so she could place her order. It would’ve been easier if she had a cell phone, but her dad didn’t let her bring it to school with her. He said it was because she’d be living with any friends she’d want to call, but Kara knew better. Despite their financial comfort, her dad was nothing but a tightwad.

Unsure what she could have delivered, she decided on cookies, not that it mattered. The delivery wasn’t the point. 

            “What time will it be delivered?” Kara asked once she’d placed her order.

            “Well, for an extra twenty dollars you can have your choice of delivery times,” the woman on the other end answered.

            Twenty dollars seemed like a lot for her pick of delivery times, but she didn’t have a choice. If she didn’t know what time it would be there then the whole plan would be ruined.

            “Okay, I’d like to have it delivered at six thirty please,” Kara said.

            Kara’s hands were shaking by the time she gave the woman the number of her Visa check card and hung up the phone. There was no going back now.

Ethan:

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”

            Ethan frowned at his brother and the way he always appeared in his room without an invitation. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class?”

            “Classes can wait. First, I want to know how it is you go from being desperate for Kara to fall in love with you to pretending she doesn’t exist.” 

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

            “Let’s see. First, you spend the entire week avoiding her and refusing to speak to her. Then you don’t even look at her at the football game on Friday night.”

            “How do you know what I’ve been doing all week?”

            Solomon laughed. “Come now, little brother, you don’t think being confined to the darkness means I’m in the dark, do you?”

“Then if you’re not in the dark, you should already know what’s going on. I shouldn’t have to tell you anything. You should just know since you make it your business to know things and all.”