HalfWorlder #Wattys2017

Chapter 26-My favorite jeans

Well, after nearly a year with a crashed hard drive, and this novel sitting on it, my documents were finally recovered this week.Sorry for the LONG wait, but I'm happy to begin posting the final chapters of HalfWorlder. And happy to have my novel back!

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Alexandra sat with one leg tucked under her and the other hanging off her bunk, kicking it over and over again like the anxiety she felt might flee out her toes. All her earlier confidence was gone.

She sat like that the last 20 minutes, stopping only to mention if she read anything worthwhile in the giant tome she had open on her lap. She kept on kicking away, her toes painted a bright corvette red, surprisingly vibrant for a girl who disdained all but simple makeup around her eyes and the occasional touch of pale gloss on her mouth.

She had fallen into a pattern of reading for a few minutes, only to look up, think for a minute, and bite at one of her fingernails. Then it was back to the book. When she did it, she held her mouth open to reveal the little space between her front teeth, oblivious to my eyes on her.

I couldn't help staring. With her mouth closed, you'd never notice the little flaw. Her face captured you first with her wide blue eyes, hooded with perfect brows, so when her full lips smiled to reveal the hint of the gap, you only saw it for what it was, a beautiful imperfection.

She noticed me staring then. Her mouth pinched shut, and she closed the book on her lap. Tension made the muscles in her neck taught. She wouldn't make eye contact.

"I like it." I walked over to the cot to stand in front of her. She grimaced. I sunk to the floor on my knees to be close to her. "It makes you so unique."

"Dad wouldn't let me get my teeth fixed when I was little." Her eyes finally met mine. Her walls were down for once. "It reminded him too much of my mom to let me see an orthodontist." She smiled. "And by the time I was old enough to decide on my own, something held me back. It still bothers me. It's a constant reminder, but it's me too."

It was strange to hear her talking about her mom.

She never talked about her mom.

"She has it too," Alexandra tapped her front teeth twice with two fingers. "My mom."

I nodded.

"I get the feeling you look a lot like her."

I thought about Morty's brawny face and my mouth arched up in wry grin.

Alexandra caught my meaning and laughed. "Yeah, you're right. I do. I've seen pictures."

"Do you miss her?"

She bit at her fingers again unaware and answered me, a bit muffled with one finger still in her mouth. "I don't know if I can miss someone I've never met." She shifted her weight. "But I think I do."

I thought I understood that.

"You never talk about her. Why now?"

Her face pinked up. "Wep. I guess. I guess you can say he has mommy issues too. It's helped me to talk about it."

"So, that's what you've been doing together? Talking about your moms? It's not because you like him, you know, like that?" I tripped over my words trying to get them out. I felt weird admitting my insecurities.

"That was a huge part of it ..." Her eyes drifted down. "At first. But, honestly it's not all his fault. I let him think it might be more. In some small way, I thought if you got the idea I liked him, you'd give up and leave me alone."

I sat there dumbfounded. "But why would you ever want me to do that?"

Would this girl ever make sense?