Chapter Eleven
DYLAN
Present Day
“This is hopeless,” I say, crashing down into the lounge chair in Carrie’s sunroom.“We’ve been searching for hours and there’s literally nothing on the internet about him.”I put the laptop down on the whicker coffee table as Carrie leaned in to look at the screen.
We had been taking turns looking up different keywords in the search engine and coming up blank.The only thing on the entire world wide web about my dad is an obituary; the same one I’ve read a hundred times that Mom printed out and pasted into a photo album.
“Maybe you could call your Grams and ask her?”Carrie asked, just as deflated that we couldn’t find anything.
“No way.”I ran my hand through my hair.“Grams is worse than Mom when it comes to talking about Dad.She used to tell me all sorts of things when I was little but when I got older and started asking her about his teenage years, she would always break down.She would grab the picture of him from my nightstand and just stare at it until I gave up and would walk away.”
My Grams and Grandpa live in California and have visited us for a week every six months since I was born.She told me it was a deal they made with Mom the first time she saw me, and they’ve never missed a visit; I always look forward to it.Actually, they’ll be here in two months, but I can’t wait that long.
I’ve always wanted to know what happened when he died: was there an investigation, did anyone go to jail because of it, is his killer still out there somewhere, how did he not know about me and if someone else had told Mom that she was having Dad’s baby, do I have a brother or sister?
Carrie’s mom walked in with a tray of lemonade and cookies as we were calling the detective work done for the day.She cracks me up because she’s the total opposite of Mom and I ask Carrie all the time, how in the world did she end up here in Oakhaven?
Mom is down-to-earth, quiet, and friendly but a total knock-out – I’ve never understood how she’s still single.Many of my single guy teachers and coaches have hit on her through the years, but she always turned them down, except one but that didn’t end well.Carrie’s mom, on the other hand, is like the typical high school cheerleader in a grown-up’s body, she’s bubbly and loud andreallyhigh maintenance, which Carrie says is whyshe’sstill single.
Ms.Lancaster looked at the laptop screen and asked us what we were doing in here.“Looks like you’ve been working hard on something, so I thought I’d bring you in some treats.”
The obituary was still up on the screen, and I thought I saw her eyes widen in recognition when she looked at it but if they did, she played it off because she just turned to me and handed me a glass of lemonade.Maybe she was just shocked to see an obituary on the screen, not shocked atwhoseobituary it was.I grabbed a cookie and took a swig of the lemonade, choking on it as it went down.
That is the worst lemonade I have ever tasted in my life!
Chapter Twelve
ELLIE
19 years earlier
The summer between ninth and tenth grade flew by.Steff stayed at our house until the beginning of August and then she went back to California.This visit was her graduation present; she just finished high school.
And even though Lee had promised to continue to write to me, I stopped getting letters once again and the phone calls stopped coming in.So, after Steff left, my weekends became free, and I filled them up as much as possible to take my mind off the fact that Lee probably started dating someone out in California again.
My friends, Mallorie, Amy, Kim and I all started hanging out at this new teen center on the weekends.It was a fun place to be with loud music, video games, pool tables and a TV in the lobby where we could watch movies.There was also a kitchen that cooks and serves snacks.
Since we had been going for a few weeks, we started meeting some of the other kids from another local high school that went often.There was Jimmy, Nick, David and Krysten.We all becamepretty close and would even have sleepovers at each other’s houses during the week.
Amy really liked David and started talking to him more frequently.They hung out together every chance they got, and I think Krysten got a little jealous because she and David used to be a thing.But she didn’t let it stop us from hanging out as a big group.
As summer was nearing an end, Krysten planned a big “End of Summer” party at her house.Everyone came and we danced and watched a little bit of the movie “IT”.When the girls got spooked, Krysten switched off the TV and said, “Let’s play truth or dare”.
David was first, “I’ll pick truth.”
“Is it true that you like Amy?”Mallorie asked.
“Yes.”David said, looking at Amy.Amy turned red and smiled.
“Okay, Krysten, truth or dare?”David asked.
“Dare.”
“I dare you to take your shirt off and flash the next car that drives by.”Amy said laughing and Krysten ran outside and pulled up her shirt, then ran back in laughing so hard that she fell on the floor.
“Okay, okay, Mallorie, truth or dare?”Krysten asked.
