Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
Valentine’s Day.
The girls were giggling in the halls, trading cards dusted in glitter and sugary promises. I held the ones they handed me, smiled when I was supposed to, but everything inside me felt older than my body—like I’d lived a hundred years since he left.
I wish I could tell someone the truth.
I wish . . . I wish he were here.
My hands shook the whole walk home, and when Mom mentioned the yellow ribbon tied to the Wells’ porch rail . . . something inside me dropped. Mrs. Wells said he’s “missing in action.” Just unaccounted for, Mom insists. Everyone is praying for him.
I tried not to cry. I tried to pretend those words didn’t heat my soul and leaving an emptiness I can barely breathe around. My parents don’t know about us, and well, this wasn’t supposed to happen like this.
We were supposed to have time—letters, promises, a someday to hold on to.
But this is what’s happening instead, and worse, I have to pretend that I’m okay with him missing and with me . . . I don’t know what I’m going to do without him.