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LATE-NIGHT PHONE CALLS

Lizzie

JUNE 29, 2000

“K EEP TALKING ,” H UGH PURRED DOWN THE LINE LATE F RIDAY NIGHT . “I LOVE YOUR voice.”

“You’re so weird,” I mused, cradling my phone to my ear as I lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. “How was your graduation?”

“Uneventful,” he replied. “How was your dinner?”

“I didn’t have dinner,” I replied with a frown and then quickly grimaced. “Dammit, you’re a slick one, Biggs.”

“And you’re a little promise breaker, Young,” he shot back. “You promised you would eat dinner every night.”

“I genuinely forgot this time,” I offered sincerely. “Honestly, I did.”

“I could never be a girl,” he mused down the line. “I’ve never forgotten to eat a meal in my entire life.”

“Are you in bed?” I asked, plucking at a thread on my duvet.

“Just climbing in,” he replied, followed by the sound of ruffling sheets. “Are you?”

“Yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “No surprises there, huh?”

“Maybe not tonight.” There was a teasing lilt to his voice. “But that’ll change from tomorrow on.”

“Yeah, okay .”

“Don’t believe me?” Okay, he was definitely teasing me now. “Go downstairs and ask your dad what’s happening tomorrow.”

“What?” Dread filled me at a rapid rate. “Oh my God, Hugh, please tell me.”

“Your parents have a lodger arriving.”

I frowned in confusion. “They do?”

“Yep. And I have it on good authority that he’s a total hard-ass, with a penchant for dragging girls named Lizzie out of bed at the crack of dawn.”

“Oh?” I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “Keep talking.”

“I think you’ll be pleased to see this visitor,” Hugh continued. “In fact, I know you will. He is your boyfriend, after all.”

“Shut up.” My eyes widened to saucers. “You’re lying.”

Hugh chuckled down the line. “So, what do you say, milady. Will you house a brave knight for the summer?”

“You know I will,” I choked out, feeling my heart rate spike from the sudden rush of excitement thrashing around inside of me. “Are you really coming to stay?”

“Your parents agreed immediately,” he confirmed. “To be honest, I thought your old man would put up a fight, but he seemed even more enthusiastic than your mam.”

“He did?”

“I know, right?”

“And your parents?” I asked, thrumming with excitement now. “Your mam said yes?”

“I managed to talk my mother into it,” he confirmed, sounding smug. “Well, I managed to emotionally blackmail her into it, but a win’s a win.”

“And your dad?”

He snorted down the line. “He’d agree to me flying to the moon if it meant he was left alone.”

“You really want to stay?” I asked, clutching my phone tighter than necessary. “You’re not just doing it out of pity? Because you really don’t have to do that.”

“Are you joking? I get to look at my girlfriend all summer. My reasons are entirely selfish.”

Exhaling a relieved breath, I smiled down the phone. “I love you.”

“I love you more,” he replied without missing a beat. “I’m going to be with you, Liz,” he added, voice taking on a gruff tone. “When you open your eyes in the morning, my face is the first thing you’re going to see. All day, every day, and every fucking night if I get my way, until school starts in September. Because you are more important to me than anything else in my life. And because there’s nowhere else that I would rather be than right there with you.”

I knew I was crying by the time he finished speaking.

My throat wasn’t making any noise, but I could feel the tears landing on my cheeks.

I wasn’t sure if I felt relief or devastation swell up inside of me.

Probably both.

Because I felt so alone and desperately wanted to have him close, but I was also terrified of him seeing me at my worst—really seeing me…and walking away.

Because there was something wrong with me, something broken inside of my head, and while I used to have some control over it before, that control had been eradicated that day at my sister’s graveside.

When I realized no one would ever believe me.

When I decided I didn’t believe myself, either.

Since that day, I didn’t have it in me to mask and conceal.

I barely had it in me to breathe.

As for friends and family, the bustle of coddling was a short-lived experience. After a while they stopped coming around.

Not the boy on the other line, though.

That boy came every day without fail.

“Thanks, Hugh,” I finally managed to squeeze out when my voice found me once more. “For everything.”