Page 54 of The Grump I Loathe

“Eddie, are you still there?” Alannah’s small voice echoed.

“Yeah, sorry,” I said, pulling myself from the memories. “I’m so sorry, Alannah. I don’t even know what to say, except this sucks and?—”

“Wait,” Alannah said, interrupting me. “There’s more. Mom said…” She hiccuped. “Mom said that we’re moving!”

“Moving where?” I said, my heart plummeting into my stomach.

“Back to Florida?—”

Florida?

“—because Mom wants to be near family. She says I have to pack up now ’cause we’re staying in a rental until the divorce is finalized. I have all this stuff in my room, and I don’t know what to take. Eddie, what do I do?”

I choked on my words. For once, I didn’t have an answer for her. All I could think about was how much I’d loved living near my sister these past few years while I attended college and figured out what my life looked like in San Francisco. And now it would all change. Valentina would rip Alannah away from us, dragging her across the country, and if Dad didn’t fight for joint custody, I’d be lucky to see her on holidays.

Alannah cried on the other end of the phone.

I fought off the pressure behind my eyes. “Hey,” I croaked, trying to find the bright side. “It’ll be okay. The rental might be in an interesting neighborhood.” What friggin’ bright side? “There could be cool spots for us to explore.”

“I don’t want any cool spots,” she said, crying harder. “I like my old ones. And I like my room. I don’t want to leave!”

“I don’t think your mom would move you away before your regional competition, right?” She’d placed high enough in the citywide competition to progress to the next level. Surely, Valentina wouldn’t take that opportunity away from her with how hard they always pushed her. “And if you do well in that one, you’ve got the statewide competition in November, remember? So you’re gonna be here for months, Lana, and we can still have a great summer together.”

“Everything is ruined,” she said, her words raspy. “I gotta go pack.”

“Don’t worry about that tonight,” I said, utterly useless. “I’ll come over tomorrow and help you after school.”

“Okay,” she said. “Bye, Eddie.”

“Talk to you later.” I hung up, feeling like a steaming pile of garbage.Jesus fuck. I ran my hand through my hair. I didn’t even know where to start with processing this, other than with a giant middle finger directed at Dad. When I turned back to the ping-pong table, everyone was staring at me. Reality rushed back in, slamming into me. I wanted to run, but I didn’t know where.

“That didn’t sound great,” Leigh said. “You okay?”

I forced a smile, shoving my phone in my pocket. “Yeah, of course I’m good. Don’t stop the party on my account.” I gestured to my paddle. “Another game?”

“We can do something else,” Leigh offered. “Or if you want to talk?—”

“Nah, come on,” I said as Noah handed over the paddle. “Let’s go again.” If I could just have enough fun, I’d be able to keep myself from replaying that conversation in my head, and I could stave off the hurt until later.

Right?

Right?

“Think I’m gonna pass,” Noah said. “Looks like it’s starting to rain. I’ve got a fifteen-minute walk home after the bus, so I should get going before it really lets loose.”

“Yeah, me too,” Leigh said softly. She nodded to Noah. “I can give you a ride if you want.”

“Great, thanks.”

Shit. We gathered up our things in silence. Noah and Leigh headed off, but Max hung back, nudging me as we wandered toward the door.

“Didn’t mean to put a damper on things,” I said. “Sorry.”

“You didn’t,” Max said as we reached the parking lot. “We all had a good time. And not that I was trying to eavesdrop or anything, but if it helps, there’s one person we both know with a lot of knowledge about divorce courts in the state.”

I was barely clinging to my smile. “Yeah, right. I should get going.”

Max gave me a sad smile before heading off through the rain.