9781250209153

8
Halloween passes in a blur of candy corn and costumes. My friends and I
celebrate at the Chuck Munny, where they’re showing Hocus Pocus on the
big screen for three-dollar admission. I secretly hope we might run into
Tally—she always loved the Munny and would hang out with me at the
concession stand while I worked on slow days—but when I check her
Instagram, she’s posting from a haunted house with her new friends.
My family learns of my new “relationship” on the first night of
November. Mom and Dad and I are getting ready for college scholarship
night, a boring info dump hosted by the school guidance department, when
Thora throws a grenade into the mix.
“College night is for all the seniors, right?” she says, even though she
already knows the answer. “I guess that means you’ll meet Scottie’s new
girlfriend.”
Dad freezes in the act of pulling on his Crocs. Mom stops lint rolling the
cat hair off her jacket.
“Girlfriend?” they say at the same time.
I glare at Thora, but the damage is done. I explain as sparingly as I can,
but they manage to wrangle Irene’s name, description, and practically her
star sign from me.
“But this is the girl you got in the car accident with!” Mom says,
beaming. “And you said you didn’t like her … Now how about that for life
playing a joke on you!”
“It’s like they say, Scots,” Dad chimes in. “Beautiful things can grow
out of shit.”