Kate in Waiting Becky Albertalli (best way to read books TXT) đ
- Author: Becky Albertalli
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I stopped going to Sunday school after my bat mitzvah. I guess I could have gone on to get confirmed, but I never felt like my parents wanted to drive me. And then Noah started dating Genny Hedlund, which added this whole extra layer of weirdness. Even more so when they broke up six weeks later. Apparently it wasnât like Andersonâs and my breakup, which ended in us crying, hugging, and vowing forever friendship beneath Andyâs eight Teen Wolf posters. All of which, I later noticed, prominently featured Dylan OâBrienâs face.
But by April, Noah was dating Savannah Griffin, and after that, Gayatri Dawar. And then Mackenzie Yates, and Eva Cohen, and Ashlyn OâShea, and Amy Austin. He just always seemed to have a girlfriend. Or an almost-girlfriend. Or, evidently, two simultaneous girlfriends. I donât even want to know what his deal was at ninth-grade homecoming.
Anyway, the whole thing just made Noah hard to be friends with. It wasnât that I cared who he hooked up with. And heâs never been the type to drop off the planet when heâs in a relationship. But it almost started to feel like we were from two different species. You had Noah, flirting and kissing, bouncing from sports games to parties. And then you had me, a slick teenager with slick teenage moves, blowing my hair out to look like Ella Enchanted. Or memorizing the Wikipedia page for Lansing, Michigan. Or playing love songs alone in my room and crying. I just felt so childish compared to Noah. Itâs like he moved on to French pastries, and I was still munching on bread balls.
Scene 36
Itâs getting warmer, maybe a little too warm, but Iâm not quite ready to head back inside. Noahâs winding up about the musical now, which is funny to watchâjust hearing the phrase âintensive rehearsalâ in the mouth of an f-boy. âIntensive is right. I was like, damn. Mr. D made Brandie and Laura sing the âhey nonny nonnyâ part thirty-eight times in a row, I countedââ
âYou mean Lana?â
Noah looks unruffled. âWell, yes and no. On the one hand, I know her nameâs Lana. On the other hand, I have to call her Laura because she keeps calling me Nolan.â
âFair,â I say, yawning. Sunshine always makes me sleepy. And for a minute, neither of us speaks, but itâs the peaceful kind of silence. Livyâs still on her swing, though sheâs talked Noah into letting her play a game on his phone, and Ryan and Brandie are pretty much where we left them. And itâs starting to feel like a moment I could settle into. Like, so what if Anderson and Matt have plans that donât include me. I donât have to stress about that. I can just choose not to think about it.
After a couple of minutes, Ryan and Brandie drift back toward the picnic table, and Brandie scoots in right beside me. And Iâm flooded with some kind of feeling, some preemptive nostalgia. Itâs the kind of moment where I swear I feel a memory forming before Iâm even done living it. Brandie must feel it too because she hooks her arm around my waist. So I do the same thing to her, and now itâs like weâre posing for a picture. Itâs such a soft, sun-soaked feeling, so quintessentially Brandie. Sheâs like a walking, talking Xanax. I mean, itâs actually weirdly easy to picture Brandie as a grandma.
Noah yawns, turning to Ryan. âYou have your thing tomorrow, right? Georgia State?â
âKennesaw,â says Ryan. âNine a.m.â
âYikes,â says Noah.
Sucks to be Ryan. My parents donât agree on much, but theyâre both fanatical about college. Which means Ryanâs been doing campus tours and info sessions practically every single weekend. I think heâs pretty burned out on them. Itâs weirdâI never see Ryan all that hyped about college, the way most seniors are. Honestly, Iâm not so hyped for him to leave either. Even if he ends up staying local, itâs going to make everything different. Itâs like when my parents split. You wouldnât think Mom moving three miles up the road would be the biggest change on earth. And it wasnât.
It was more like a million tiny changes.
But then again, Raina says she and her sister actually got closer after Corey left for college, because they started texting more. Though Ryanâs a shitty texter, so maybe that doesnât apply. Andy thinks I should take over his room when he leaves and turn it into a dressing room.
Except Iâm not thinking about Andy. Or Matt. Or their plans.
Of course, the minute I decide that, my phone finally buzzes in my back pocket. Four times.
But when I pull it out to check, not a single one of them is from Anderson.
Theyâre all from Matt.
Want to come over and run lines tomorrow?
Okay anyway Iâm free all day tomorrow if you want to, so just text me!
âOkay, you kind of look like you just won the lottery,â says Noah, âbut also like youâre about to throw up.â
âThatâs exactly how I feel.â
Noah raises his eyebrows. âMust be some text.â
Scene 37
Itâs almost noon, and Dad and Ryan still arenât back from Kennesawâwhich sucks hard, because they were my top two choices to drive me to Mattâs house today. I feel weird asking Matt to pick me up at Dadâs house. It just tips the invitation too far out of the realm of casual, I think. And itâs not like I can bum a ride from Anderson, unless I want Anderson present for the line running. And I donât. Maybe thatâs awful, but I donât.
In the
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