My mother flipped the eggs in the pan, then picked up a

mixing bowl from the counter and began to whisk the batter. “Oh

yes, I love the holidays. They’re so much fun. What about you?”

Seth raised his eyebrows at her as he pulled out a chair at

the table. “Do I like the holidays? No, not really” He sat down and I joined him, reading the text I got from Luke.

Luke: Did you hear from him?

Me: No… have you?

Luke: No, I stopped by his house, though.

Me: Is he okay?

Luke: I don’t know. His brother answered and said he

hadn’t seen him. I think he was drunk, though.

Me: I texted him a couple of times. He never texts back.

Luke: I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably just working

through some stuff.

Working through some stuff? Alone. In that god-awful

house.

“Callie, did you hear me?”

I glanced up from my phone and my mother and Seth were

staring at me. “Huh?” I said.

Seth’s eyebrows dipped beneath the square-framed glasses

he was wearing, not to correct his vision but because they are

fashionable. “Are you okay?” he asked.

I nodded. “I’m fine.”

“Who are you texting?” my mom asked, mixing the bowl with

a whisk.

I quickly locked the screen on my phone and set it down on

the table. “No one.”

My mother dropped the whisk on the counter and batter

splattered all over. “You were texting Kayden, weren’t you? I can’t

believe this, Callie. I told you I didn’t want you spending any time

with him after what happened—after what he did to Caleb.”

Seth looked at me with astonishment in his eyes and I

shrugged, shaking my head, trying not to cry. “It’s not Kayden,” I

told my mom again.

“Even if it was, I think Callie’s old enough to decide who she

wants to talk to,” Seth chimed in calmly. “In my opinion she is an

excellent judge of character.” He said it with an attitude and any

chance of my mother and him getting along fell apart right there.

“More than most people, who seem to miss the mark all the time.”

She didn’t fully understand the depth of his words, but his

snippy tone was enough for her to decide she didn’t like him,

something she told me later when she pulled me aside.

“He’s rude,” she said. “Does he talk to his own mother that

way?”

“He doesn’t talk to his mother,” I’d said and that was another

strike against him.

After that, I decided it’d be better to keep them separated,

because Seth wouldn’t keep quiet if my mother said something

ridiculous and my mother would never stop saying ridiculous

things.

* * *

I’ve been home for almost a week. Time seems to move in

slow motion. Each hour feels like days, and days like months.

Christmas is only four days away and my mom keeps trying to

make me spend time shopping and wrapping presents with her. I

do as much as I can, but every time she brings up Caleb, I bail. I

even took off during our trip to the mall and had to call Luke to

come pick me up.

“I’m not sure if I’m even hungry,” I tell Seth as I pour syrup

on the stack of pancakes in front of me. We’re in the café again,

enjoying the same light chitchat after a very uncomfortable

morning with my mom. “Six days in a row is putting me on

pancake overload.”

He butters his toast and then adds some strawberry jelly.

He’s wearing a blue shirt with a logo on the pocket and his hair is

still a little damp from the shower he took right before we left the

house. “Well, you don’t have to order pancakes every time,” he

says and sets the butter knife down on the table.

“Or maybe you should order me something different,” I

reply, grabbing some sugar packets from the bowl. Seth had taken

it upon himself to order for me while I was in the restroom, and I

wasn’t planning on ordering pancakes.

“I think we should eat pancakes every morning that we’re on

break.” He takes a bite of his toast. Crumbs fall to the front of his shirt and he dusts them off with a sweep of his hand. “It’ll be fun.”

I stare down at my pancakes buried in a puddle of syrup.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m always sure when I say something aloud.” He sets the

toast down on the smaller of the two plates.

I seal my lips and try not to laugh at him because Seth is

never sure of things, just like I’m not, just like most of the world

isn’t. “All right, we can try to eat pancakes everyday over break. But if I end up puking you have to promise to hold my hair back.”

“I promise.” He smiles and raises his hand in front of himself.

I slam my palm against his, giving him a high-five. For a moment

it’s just he and I in the café, maybe even in the world. But the bell on the door dings and my eyes instinctually wander over to it.

Suddenly, I remember that there are a lot more people in the

world who need to eat a lot of pancakes over Christmas break.

Kayden walks into the café and the few people at the tables

promptly look up at him. There have been rumors going around

about him throughout the small town, ones that are horrible. I

struggle not to hit every single person looking at him.

He has a coat on and there are snowflakes stuck in his wet

hair. He’s wearing an old pair of jeans with holes in them and black

boots on his feet. The Christmas lights that trim the windows

reflect in his eyes and make them look red instead of green. His

gaze sweeps the room but misses me, and then he walks up to the

counter where one of the older waitresses with gray hair and a

hairnet greets him at the register.

“Callie, what are you staring at?” Seth’s tracks my gaze and

then his eyes bulge. “Oh.”

It’s like my feet don’t belong to me as I bend my knees and

stand up from the booth. As soon as I’m on my feet, Kayden’s eyes

lock on me. We stare at each other from across the café and the

tables and chairs and people blur away. He crosses his arms over

his chest and presses his lips together before shaking his head. He

looks away as the waitress hands him a plastic to-go bag. I’m not

sure what it means, but I need to talk to him.

“I’ll be right back,” I say and start to step away as Kayden

pays the waitress.

Seth catches my sleeve and draws me back a little bit. “Be