All We Can Do Is Wait(16)

Jason looked her in the eye, gave her the faintest smile. “Sure thing, little sister.” This was meant to nudge her back into place, into her role. Alexa figured they were done talking—probably the most, and most sincerely, they’d spoken uninterrupted for three years. But then Jason surprised her.

“Are you O.K.?”

The question took her aback. “How do you mean?”

“Like, school and shit. Is getting As stressful?”

“Of course it’s stressful.”

“But do you like it? Is it good stressful?”

Alexa realized she wasn’t sure how to answer that. Or maybe she was, it was just hard to say out loud. So instead of saying “Yes, I hate it, I’m going crazy, I never want to take an exam ever again and I mean it,” she aped her brother and gave a little shrug. “I dunno.”

Jason nodded sagely. “Yeah. Yeah.” He fell silent then, and it was clear that they were done talking. Which Alexa was fine with. It had been some time—in fact, had it ever happened?—since someone hadn’t just assumed she was on top of the world. Of course, her mother gave her shit about studying more and practicing more, but it was never about whether the studying and the practicing were inherently good things for Alexa. And the thing with Kyle, the subtle hints about him, and about Alexa’s perceived naivety—that wasn’t really Alexa’s mother being concerned for Alexa. It was more of a worry about a potential future embarrassment, an unpleasantness that could disrupt Linda’s carefully ordered existence.

But Jason really seemed to be asking, to have seen past the goody-two-shoes airs he often sniped at her about and recognized some change in her, some restlessness. She felt connected to Jason then, there in the dunes. Maybe they were joined in that restlessness. Maybe that is what bonded the Elsing children together.

Alexa leaned back on her elbows and took in the breeze and the sound of the ocean. Jason laid out his towel and leaned back too. Alexa began recounting, once again, all she’d heard about Amelia’s undying love for Jason, while they watched the sky turn orange, then deep blue, the wind hissing through the beach grass, the crickets chirping awake.

? ? ?

Now it was all beeps and rings and tense voices. Alexa looked around the waiting room, didn’t see Jason anywhere. Mary Oakes was still in her corner, looking perturbed. Alexa watched as a teenage boy in a hoodie and sweats—she hadn’t noticed him before—tentatively walked up to Mary Oakes to ask her something. She shook her head and the boy looked deflated. He nodded, turned, and walked off. Alexa stood up, walked quickly to intercept him. Up close he looked tired too, his brown eyes watery, dark hair mussed at odd angles.

“Hey, sorry to bother you, did she tell you anything new?”

The boy looked surprised that someone was talking to him.

“Huh? Oh—no. No, she just said that things are taking longer than they thought because, I dunno, it’s dangerous for the rescue workers or something. There are still pieces falling. . . like, from the bridge? So it’s taking time.”

“O.K. Thanks.”

The boy went to sit down and, impulsively, Alexa sat down next to him.

“Can I ask who you’re waiting to hear about?”

The boy nodded. “Yeah, of course. Um, my girlfriend, Aimee. She was going to Salem, so they were . . .”

“Right. My parents were there too.”

“Your parents? Oh man. I’m sorry.”

“Thanks. It’s O.K. They’re going to be O.K.”

The boy looked at her like he wanted very much to believe her but didn’t. He sighed. They sat in silence for a moment before he spoke again.

“Where do you go? To school, I mean.”

“Northrup?”

“Oh. Wow. Cool. Yeah. That’s a really good school.”

“It’s all right. Where do you go?”

“North. Newton North. In, um, Newton. Obviously.”

Alexa laughed, and immediately hoped it didn’t sound mean.

“That’s a really good school too.”

The boy shrugged his shoulders. “It’s fine. It’s really big. I always thought it would be nice to go to a school like Northrup. But, like, a boys’ one. Or one that allows boys. Y’know.”

He sat back and was looking at her now, a kind and worried face. Alexa realized he might be there alone too. “I’m Alexa,” she said, putting her hand up as if to wave. He smiled, a little crinkle. “Scott,” he said, waving too.

They both leaned back in their chairs, falling into silence. Scott pulled his phone out of his pocket, Alexa figuring that he was checking his messages, probably his girlfriend’s parents telling him they were on their way. But then he turned to Alexa and held his phone out.

“That’s her,” he said. “Aimee.”

Alexa took the phone from him and looked at a picture, one of those outside-the-house-before-a-school-dance pictures, probably a semiformal, judging from the length of the girl’s dress. Scott was in a blue blazer and wrinkled khakis, like a boarding school uniform, Alexa thought. Aimee, dyed blond and perky looking, was standing in front of him, his arms around her waist. The house behind them was small and simple, half aluminum siding, half brick. It didn’t look like the proud, rambling Victorians or big brick colonials that girls Alexa knew from Newton lived in.