THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS sucked. Calvin returned to school, but he refused to speak to me, and he wouldn’t sit with me at lunch. He showed up to physics, ignored me, and ran out at the bell. I tried to follow to see where he was eating, but I couldn’t keep up. We hadn’t worked on our roller coaster project in a while, but all I wanted was for Calvin to talk to me again.
I couldn’t count on much lately other than Tommy still being gone and the universe continuing to collapse, so I threw myself back into trying to figure out why. I’d spent so much time wrapped up in Calvin’s life that I’d nearly let go of Tommy, and I wondered if maybe all the things that had gone wrong were the universe’s way of punishing me for it.
The only good thing that had happened was that Renny was being transferred to a hospital in Miami the next day. I was supposed to pick my parents up at the airport and we were going to drive over there together to see him, which scared me a little. I wasn’t sure how I’d deal with seeing Renny broken, but, like with Cal, broken was better than dead.
“Are you going to sit on your computer all night?” Lua asked. He was dressed in ripped jeans and a tight white T-shirt that lay flat across his chest.
I looked up. I’d been working at the dining room table for so long that I hadn’t even realized it was night. I rubbed my burning eyes. “This is important.”
Lua pulled out a chair and sat beside me. “Look, I’ve let you mope long enough. I get that you’re upset about Calvin, but if he’s going to forgive you, he’ll do it in his own time.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Then fuck him, all right? I’m not your goddamn therapist.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”
“Whatever what?”
I glanced at Lua’s crooked finger.
“Oh,” Lua said. “Well, for your information, I agreed to let Trent’s parents pay for the surgery.”
That got my attention. “You did? What changed your mind?”
Lua shrugged. “I talked to Trent.”
“And?”
“And, it’s none of your business.” Lua sighed and shook his head. “Let’s just say that after hearing what he had to say, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“Does this mean I’ll have to find a new date to the prom?”
“Ugh, no. He’s still a creep.” Lua smiled a little, and I kind of got the feeling that he wasn’t being entirely honest. “But it does mean the tour’s back on. There’ll be some physical therapy, and I’ll probably need to rework some of the songs so I can play them on my keyboard until I’m one hundred percent, but I’ll be killing it again before you know it.”
That was the first piece of great news I’d heard in ages.
Then he said, “Anyway, I’m going to a/s/l tonight, and you’re coming.”
“Lua . . .”
“No excuses, Ozzie. Even my mom’s got a date. I’m not letting you sit here and sulk.”
Lua bullied me into the shower and fussed over my hair and outfit until he was happy. I suspected the main reason Lua wanted me to go was so I could drive, but I didn’t care. We danced until we were both soaked with sweat, and I allowed myself to forget my troubles for a while. Occasionally I caught someone out of the corner of my eye who looked like Calvin, but it was never him. I kept hoping he’d realize I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, that he’d forgive my betrayal, but as the days stretched on without a word from him, I began to think he might never absolve me.
But a night out with Lua turned out to be exactly what I needed. A cute guy with long dark bangs even hit on me. I tried to tell him I wasn’t interested, but Lua butted in and wrote my number on the back of his hand. I didn’t know whether the guy would call, or if I’d answer if he did, but it was nice to feel wanted.
I checked the time and swam through the crowd to find Lua. “Come on!” I shouted into his ear. “We gotta go.”
Lua frowned but let me drag him off the dance floor. When we were clear of the noise, he said, “What’s your problem?”
“I have to be up early in the morning.”
“Tomorrow’s Saturday, Oz. You can sleep in.”
I screwed up my face. “My parents are flying back tomorrow. I’m driving to Miami to meet them at Renny’s new hospital. I told you all this yesterday.”
Lua’s brow creased. “What are you talking about, Oz?”
I thought it was the music, that the bass had rendered Lua deaf or something, so I led him out to the patio. “Come on, Lu. You remember. Renny’s doctors released him to a VA hospital in Miami? They’ll be here tomorrow morning?”
“Listen,” Lua said. “I let the whole Tommy thing slide, but now you’re taking it too far.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Parents, Oz? And who’s Renny?”
No. No, no, no, no, no. “My parents, Lua. Katherine and Daniel. And my brother, Warren? Fell during an army training exercise and wound up paralyzed? He’s been at a VA hospital in Georgia for the last few weeks?”
Lua shook his head. “Okay, now you’re just making up words. What’s a Georgia?”
“The state directly north of Florida!” I shouted. Other people on the patio were staring, but I didn’t care.
“Calm down,” Lua said. “I know you’re upset about Calvin, but this isn’t funny.”
I sat on a bench along the wall and buried my face in my hands. “What the hell is going on, Lua?”
“You tell me.” He sat beside me but kept his distance.
“Are you saying my parents are gone?”
Lua grabbed his phone out of his pocket. “I’m calling Dinah.”
I caught his wrist. “Lua. Tell me what happened to my parents.”
“I don’t know! Why are you doing this?”
“I’m not doing anything. Just tell me about my parents.”
“You were left at a fire station the day you were born, Ozzie. All you had was a note with your name. My mom adopted you. You’ve been my brother since we were babies.” I’d never seen Lua so worried. “Look, you know Dinah’s always encouraged you to find your birth parents. If you have, just say so.”
Lua and I? Siblings? Ms. Novak had adopted me? My entire history had been rewritten while I’d danced. My parents and Renny edited out of my life. I grabbed Lua’s phone and pulled up a map of the world. It had shrunk to a sphere with a circumference of only 1,508 miles. Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, 98 percent of the United States: gone. Florida existed as the only landmass on the entire tiny planet. When the universe had shrunk before, all I’d lost were hypothetical planets with theoretical people, but the people who had vanished from Earth had been real. They’d had real families and real histories and had lived real lives. I’d hoped the universe would stop shrinking once it reached Earth, but it was going to continue collapsing until nothing remained but me, leaving me alone in Cloud Lake forever.
“I haven’t found them,” I said, my voice defeated. “They’re gone. They’re all gone.”
Lua wrapped his arm around me, and I let him. There wasn’t anything else I could do.
“Come on, Oz. Let’s go home.”
I nodded, but I didn’t have a home anymore. Everything I had was being slowly stolen from me, and I didn’t know how to stop it.
1,491 MI