Page 78 of Life and Death

“Well, I mean . . .”

“Sure,” she said. She slid the bag down her arm and then held it out to me, very deliberately using just the tip of her pinkie finger.

“Er, thanks,” I said, and she let the strap fall into my hand.

I guess I should have known it would be twice as heavy as my own. I caught it before it could hit the sidewalk, then hefted it over my free shoulder.

“Do you always bring your own cinder blocks to school?”

She laughed. “Archie asked me to grab a few things for him this morning.”

“Is Archie your favorite brother?”

She looked at me. “It’s not nice to have favorites.”

“Only child,” I said. “I’m everyone’s favorite.”

“It shows. Anyway, why do you think that?”

“Seems like you talk about him most easily.”

She thought about that for a moment but didn’t comment.

Once we were in the cafeteria, I followed her to the food line. I couldn’t help staring at the back corner of the cafeteria the way I did every day. Her family was all present and accounted for, paying attention only to each other. They either didn’t notice Edythe with me, or they didn’t care. I thought about the idea Jeremy had come up with—that Edythe and I were seeing each other in secret to keep it from her family’s notice. It didn’t look like she was hiding anything from them, but I couldn’t help but wonder what they thought about me.

I wondered what I thought about them.

Just then Archie looked up and smiled across the room at me. Automatically, I smiled back, then glanced down to see if he’d actually meant the smile for Edythe. She was aware of him, but she wasn’t responding in kind. She looked sort of angry. My eyes cut back and forth between the two of them as they had some kind of silent conversation. First, Archie smiled wider, showing off teeth so white they were bright even across the length of the room. Edythe raised her eyebrows in a sort of challenge, her upper lip curling back just a tiny bit. He rolled his eyes to the ceiling and held his hands up like he was sayingI surrender.Edythe turned her back to him and moved forward in the line. She grabbed a tray and started loading it up.

“I’m pretty close with all my family, but Archie and I do have the most in common,” she said, finally answering my question in a low voice. I had to duck my head down to hear her. “Some days he’s really annoying, though.”

I glanced back at him; he was laughing now. Though he wasn’t looking at us, I thought he might be laughing at her.

I was paying so much attention to this little exchange that I didn’t notice what she had on the tray till the lunch lady was ringing us up.

“That’ll be twenty-four thirty-three,” she said.

“What?” I looked down at the tray and then did a double take.

Edythe was already paying, and then gliding off toward the table where we’d sat together last week.

“Hey,” I hissed, jogging a few steps to catch up with her. “I can’t eat all that.”

“Half is for me, of course.”

She sat down and pushed the overflowing tray to the center of the table.

I raised my eyebrows. “Really.”

“Take whatever you want.”

I sank into the seat across from her, letting the dead weight of her bag slide to the floor with mine. At the other end of the long table, a group of seniors watched her with wide eyes.

“I’m curious. What would you do if someone dared you to eat food?”

“You’re always curious.” She made a face, then daintily tore the tip off a piece of pizza, popped it in her mouth, and started chewing with a martyred expression. After a second, she swallowed, then gave me a superior look.

“If someone dared you to eat dirt, you could, couldn’t you?” she asked.