Page 58 of String Boys

Long Beginnings

SETH STAREDat his laptop as he sat in his college dorm, his heart pounding in his chest.

Oh God. Oh God oh God oh God….Kellywrote him.

And Matty had deleted his emails, like Seth’s dad had texted the night before.

And Kelly was getting better—but not all fine like he said. And he hurt, but he was trying. And he was spending time with Seth’s dad. And he missed Amara—Seth pulled out his phone and patiently sent Kelly’s new contact info to Amara before he could forget.

She’d asked him about Kelly, and then she’d asked him about the bruises on his throat, and then she’d stopped asking when he’d just looked at her helplessly before disappearing into his head.

Amara really was smart.

The day he bought the flamingo, he hadn’t had enough allowance to eat. They were rehearsing at a college campus, doing a special workshop for the new students of Bridgford, which paired them up with a senior in the music program at a prominent UC. They rehearsed together, played together, performed together, and the idea probably went, the incoming student would be inspired and reassured—oh, hey, this person got through school,theycould too!

But Seth’s “buddy” was a super-competitive blonde girl who seemed constantly irritated that Seth knew his material so well.

So when it was lunchtime, she went to go bitch to her friends and her teacher, probably, and Seth ate lunch with Amara, so grateful that she was on this trip too that he could almost cry.

Even more so because he had no money for lunch. He’d already spent his allowance on the key chain and the cards and the flamingo and the mailers. This was day four since he’d left home, and they were fed one meal a day while on the trip.

He’d have to wait for dinner, and while that didn’t usually bother him—Kelly and Matty had kept him fed through his first three years of high school anyway—it was apparently pissing Amara the hell off.

“Why aren’t you eating?” she whispered, looking sideways at herownbuddy. Apparently they made college-aged flutists insanely hot here, and Seth’s heart had hurt a little for his friend, who got awkward around cute guys in the worst way.

“Not hungry,” he lied, and she handed him an apple off her plate.

He bit into it ravenously and then smiled like he hadn’t been that easy to catch.

“Try again,” she muttered. “The truth this time.”

“You are not my mother,” he said through a full mouth, and she gave him a look that Kelly’s mother would have been proud of. “Fine. I have no money. Happy?”

She frowned. “Your dad gave you money before you got on the bus. I saw that. Did you lose it?”

He shrugged. “Spent it.”

“Don’t make me come over there and beat you,” she said with a perfectly straight face.

But she was trying, so he gave in. “I bought Kelly some stuff. He’s… he got hurt. And he needed something reassuring. Because, you know, I left before he got out of the hospital.”

She stared at him and handed him her pudding without blinking. “Four days? It took you four days to bring this up? No wonder you were out to lunch. Oh my God,Seth.That must have sucked. Did you get hurt in the same fight?”

“No,” Seth said.

She waited for him to say something else, cocking her head.

He smiled back, faraway. “Can I use your spoon?”

She handed him the spoon and waited some more. “I ignored it when you got on the bus,” she said.

“I appreciate that.”

“I was grateful because I wanted a friend.”

“I appreciate that too.”

“You left your boyfriend in the hospital and looked like you should have been with him.”