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I was joking about the aliens thing, but it was starting to seem like the only plausible explanation. Who doesn’t touch their phone for twelve days?No one,that’s who. Seriously. Since I sent that text, I’d:

Packed.

Left the lake house.

Flown home.

Packed up myentire house.

Said good-bye to all my friends.

Consumed three milkshakes of pure misery. One with Ryan, one with Hayley, and one more with Ryan because he had a late-night craving after already officially saying good-bye to me.

Flown to freaking Collinswood, A.K.A. Podunk Nowhere.

Unpacked myentirehouse.

Cried in secret twice.

Cried a little bit in front of my parents once.

Made a blood vow with myself to stop freaking crying.

Taken a tour of Podunk Nowhere and cried on the inside a bit when I realized all my shopping was going to have to be online from here on out.

WatchedFrozenthree times. Twice, with my cousins in the room. Once, on my own because it was already in the DVD player and I couldn’t be bothered to change it.

And in all that time, not one message from Will? Screw that. I was officially over it.

Not so over it that I didn’t want to vent, though. And tonight was my chance. After several failed attempts, Ryan, Hayley, and I had finally found a time we were all free to Skype. I’d intended to take the call in my room, but Mom decided at the last minute that she needed me in the kitchen to peel the cucumbers for the salad. So I multitasked, with the laptop on the dining room table and a cutting board beside it.

Mom and Dad were cooking a special dinner to celebrate the grand opening of our new kitchen. Trouble was, our special meals were usually takeout, since we neverhad people over for dinner and therefore had no one to impress but ourselves. And pad thai from the restaurant down the street had historically impressed all three of us without fail in San Jose.

By the time Dad cracked (no pun intended) and pulled up a Gordon Ramsay tutorial on YouTube to copy from, tensions were running high. To make things worse, joining us in the kitchen were my very bored and crabby cousins, Crista and Dylan.

Basically, the house was chaos, and adding a Skype call into it all didn’t help.

“It’s alittle loudon your end,” Ryan said, making a face into the camera. On the bed beside him, Hayley burst into giggles.

“Right, sorry. Just try to ignore it,” I said. I had to speak on an angle in order to peel the cucumbers.

Ryan said something in response, but he was drowned out by Crista’s whining.

“Aunt Catherine? Aunt Catherine? Aunt Catherine?” She followed Mom around the kitchen, holding onto her bowl of apple slices and cheddar cheese, while Mom pretended she couldn’t hear.

“Sorry, what?” I asked the screen.

Ryan and Hayley gave me matching amused looks. “I said, have you unpacked yet?” Ryan yelled.

I opened my mouth to reply, but ended up with an apple slice shoved unceremoniously in my face. “Don’t like theskin,” Dylan said in a firm voice, waving the apple around.

“It’s a little late for that, buddy,” I said. “Just eat around it.”

“Theskin.”

“I’m busy right now, I’m peeling something else. It’d getcucumber juice all over your apple. Go get Aunt Catherine to help you.”