Just One Year(12)

“That should be…fun? Seems like she’s a lot different from her sister.”

“Teagan is not Maura’s daughter, actually. No one’s made mention of Teagan’s mother aside from Shelley saying she’s not around anymore.”

“Meaning she’s dead?”

“No, she’s alive, I think, just not in the picture.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. Wonder what the story is on that. Poor thing. A girl, especially of that age, needs her mother.”

“Yeah, that might explain why she’s a little guarded. I like her, though. Seems like a good person.”

“Auntie told me she saw a photo of you with a girl on Instagram—said she was pretty.”

Great. I’d forgotten my nosy aunt stalked me on there.

“That’s Veronica.”

“You fancy her?”

“We’ve just been hanging out. It’s new.”

“Well, be careful.” My mother’s voice grew stern. “You know what I mean.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, Mum, I do.”

“Well, alright then. I won’t keep you.”

Before she could hang up, I caught her. “Hey—how’s Dad?”

“He’s good. Busy as always. You know how it is.”

I sighed, suddenly feeling depressed. “Yeah.”

It was always my mother calling, never my father. Not once had he come to the phone to check in with me since I moved to the States.

“Love you, my boy. Take care.”

“Love you, too, Mum. I will.”

***

I knocked in a loud rhythm on Teagan’s door, which was halfway open.

She jumped and put her hand over her chest. “You scared me.”

“You didn’t forget our study date, did you?”

Taking off her headphones, she said, “No, I didn’t.”

I took a few steps inside. “You weren’t at dinner, so I thought maybe you were blowing me off entirely tonight.” I sat across from her on the chair by her desk.

“Yeah, my internship at the aquarium ran late, so I grabbed a bite to eat on the way home.”

“How’s that going?”

“It’s okay—perfect for someone like me who likes fish more than people. I’m weird that way.”

“I like that about you, that you’re a little weird. Not very easy to figure out, either. It makes you interesting—and better to hang with the fish than pretend to like people in a disingenuous way.”

She blushed, and that made me chuckle. I wondered if she was flustered when I walked in because I’d interrupted one of her karaoke app performances.

Teagan rushed to open her laptop. “Let’s get going on the studying. Otherwise, talking defeats the purpose of why we’re here.”

Hmmm… As soon as you turned attention toward Teagan, she tried to move on to something else.

“Yes, ma’am.” I said. “A disciplinarian. I like it.”

We spent the next hour alternating between quietly studying and Teagan quizzing me on some history questions. She also helped me outline an essay I had to do for my English literature class. Some people were better at math and science while others excelled in writing. Teagan seemed smart at everything.

We returned to studying for a while, but being the master of distraction that I was, my mind started to wander. Well, actually my eyes started to wander. As she looked down at her laptop, I took some time to examine Teagan’s face without her knowing. It was perfect, really. She had large eyes and full lips. A few freckles dotted her small nose, which had a tiny bump in the middle. Her hair was somewhere between the color of sand and caramel. She typically wore it up in a massive knot, but I imagined how it might look down. And I knew that underneath the layers of clothing she wore like armor, there must be a beautiful body as well. But she tried like hell to hide it all. I wondered why.

She suddenly looked up. “What are you doing?”

Shit. “Studying…”

“No, you aren’t. You’re looking at me.”

“Okay. I was studying you.”

She turned her head away. “Don’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t like when people look at me.” Her eyes darted to the side, like she didn’t want to deal with my reaction.

“I can tell. That’s why I was trying to do it when you weren’t paying attention.”

“Creeper.”

In an attempt to not seem like a creeper, to assure her I wasn’t ogling her, I added, “You’re like a little sister I love to annoy.”

A look crossed her face that seemed a little like…disappointment. Had my sister comment irked her?

“Well, stop being annoying and get back to studying,” she demanded. “Your next quiz is in approximately twenty minutes.”

“Shit.”

She gave me a look and went about her business. I tried to get back into what I was supposed to be doing.

After about ten minutes of buckling down, I realized maybe hunger was the reason I was having so much trouble concentrating. I decided to text her, even though she was right across from me—just to mess with her.



Caleb: Whatcha doin’?