Page 9 of Room to Breathe

“Do I?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Mom said you used my printer the other day,” he said.

“My printer is out of ink. I keep forgetting to tell you.”

“Okay, I’ll pick some up. But while you were in there, did you take some papers?”

“Papers?” I asked, confused. “No.”

“Maybe by accident?”

“Were they in the printer?” Could I have grabbed them when I grabbed mine?

“No, on the desk.”

Suddenly I remembered the papers my backpack knocked to the floor. “Oh! I accidentally knocked some papers off the desk and the shredder. I put them all back, though.”

“The shredder?” he asked.

“Yes, there were some sitting on the shredder. I’m sorry.”

“And when you put them all back, you didn’t combine a pageor two with the ones you printed off? Maybe turned them in to a teacher?”

“Did I?” I asked, alarmed. “Did my teacher call you? Does she have some client documents or something? I’m so sorry.”

“No, no,” he said, waving off my worry. “Nobody called me. I’m just asking, in case that jogged your memory.”

“I’m pretty sure I only had my homework. I’m sorry, Dad, I should’ve told you I scattered some paper. I thought I put them back right.”

“It’s okay. I’m sure you did. I’ll double-check at work.”

I pointed over my shoulder, toward the front door.

“Yes, of course. Go. I’ll see you later.”

“See you later.”

“Everything okay?” Caroline asked when I climbed into the car.

“Yeah, why did Serious Dad come out?” Ava chimed in, starting the car.

“He lost some documents or something. Was asking if I’d seen them. He’ll just print some new ones off, I’m sure.” I felt bad. Maybe they were signed documents. Maybe he’d have to get them signed all over again. I’d check my backpack when I got home.

“Do you have to work tomorrow?” Ava asked.

“Yes,” I said with a curled lip. I tutored at a local center for mostly grade-school kids, sometimes middle schoolers. When your whole identity was the fact that you were smart, that was the kind of job you got. I actually enjoyed my job. The kids were adorable, but I really wanted to sleep in tomorrow.

I generally only worked on the weekends, the main reason I’d only saved six hundred dollars in seven months for a car. The other reason was I liked to spend my money on books and chais. Andmovies. Not really that last one, but that’s where we were going now and it cost money.

“Are we taking bets on if Beau and Harper cancel on us right now?” Ava said.

“They better not,” I said. “Half the reason we’re doing this is because they wanted to. We would’ve gone to the bookstore if not for them.”

“True,” Caroline said.

“Youtwo would’ve gone to the bookstore,” Ava said.