Mrs. Luna nodded as she stepped to the side. The front door opened and a second later Jayden came in. A lazy grin tipped up the corners of his lips when he spotted us in the living room. The bruise around his eye had only faded a shade or two, and I wondered what Mrs. Luna had thought when she first saw it.
“Hey, you couldn’t get enough of me? Followin’ me home, now?” Jayden toed off his sneakers, placing them near the door as he smiled at me. “Stayin’ for dinner?”
“Nah, Mallory’s got to get home,” Rider responded.
“Too bad.” Jayden walked toward his grandmother. “Let me get that,” he said, taking her lunch bag from her. “I’m gonna make you dinner tonight.”
Rider raised his brows at that.
“Really?” Mrs. Luna smiled at Jayden. “You’re so good to me,” she said, letting Jayden usher her toward the kitchen. “What would I do without you, mi nene hermoso?”
“You’d be lost without me,” he teased, wrapping an arm around her waist. “Just like Mallory.”
I smiled as Rider guided me outside. Dusk was rapidly fading into night. Streetlamps shone dully on the sidewalk. Rider took ahold of my hand.
“Can I ask something kind of personal?” I asked.
“Sure,” he replied.
“What happened to...Hector and Jayden’s parents?”
“Their father was Mrs. Luna’s son. He died of cancer when they were little.” He squeezed my hand as we passed a tree. “And their mother kind of lost it, I guess. Or maybe she never had it? I don’t know. She’s on drugs pretty bad. Stops by once a year. Last I heard she was living in DC.”
“That’s...sad,” I said, wishing there was more that I could say.
“Yeah,” Rider murmured. We stopped by my car. “You sure you don’t need me to ride back with you?”
I nodded as I stared up at him. My gaze searched his. “Can I...ask you something else?”
Rider grinned. “You can ask me whatever.”
“Are you happy there?”
“There? You mean in Mrs. Luna’s house?” When I nodded, he placed both his hands on my shoulders and then lowered his head so we were eye level. “I’m as happy as I can be. Got a roof over my head and four walls with food on the table. After school, it’s my goal to keep those things.”
“But...but home should be more than that,” I told him. “Life...it should be more than that.”
He brushed his lips across my cheek. “It should be, but it’s not for everyone. You know that.”
Chapter 27
Rosa and Carl sat at the dinner table Wednesday evening in stunned silence as they stared at me. The broccoli I’d forced down my throat started to sprout roots and dig into my stomach.
I tensed as Carl looked at Rosa. Their eyes met, and once again I marveled at how they had the whole silent communication thing down to a science.
Clearing his throat, Carl placed his fork onto the table. “You were invited to a party?”
I nodded slowly. “I’ve...told you about Keira. She invited me.”
“And this party is at a boy’s house?” he asked.
Perhaps I should’ve kept that part to myself. “He’s a...friend.” That part wasn’t necessarily true and it wasn’t a lie. In reality, we were acquaintances.
“A friend?” Rosa’s normally level voice pitched. “Who isn’t Rider?”
“I do have...guy friends,” I replied drily, thinking of Hector and Jayden, and she blinked. “Ainsley will go with us.” Which was true. Ainsley was going. I’d even told Keira at lunch today that I’d invited her, and she was excited to meet my friend. “I really...would like to go.”
Silence.
The two resumed their mental telepathy.
I started to squirm in my chair as I stared at my half-eaten pork chop. If Rosa and Carl gave me the go-ahead for Saturday, I’d pick up Ainsley first and then Rider. The three of us would go to the party together.
A real, actual party.
My stomach twisted tighter.
Carl took a sip of his water and then said, “Are this guy’s parents going to be there?”
I had no idea. Probably not, but that wasn’t what I was going to say. “I think so.”
More looks were exchanged. Maybe I should’ve sounded more certain.
“We would like to talk to his parents,” Carl said.
My eyes widened. “What? That would be...embarrassing.”
“Mallory—”
“No one’s parents do that,” I insisted, horrified by the prospect of them setting up a parental powwow just the way they had with my teachers behind my back. “If you have to...talk to them, then I shouldn’t go. I just wanted—”
“I think it will be fine,” Rosa injected, earning Carl’s sharp look. “I do,” she said, meeting his gaze. “And I think it’s wonderful that you were invited and want to go. I also don’t think we need to speak to anyone.”
I about fell out of my chair.
Carl raised his brows.
She looked at me, long and hard. “I think you’re ready for this.”
I jumped out of my chair and hugged her.
“And I think this is good,” she continued, her gaze never wavering, but she smiled, and I could tell that she really meant it. “You have a curfew, Mallory. It’s eleven o’clock. We expect you home at that time and not five minutes past it.”