Free On the Fence by Kasie West Page B

his Little League game. I remembered the pictures, not the events. “What else do you remember about her?”
    “She was quiet. . . .” He hesitated. “She used to come over and talk to my mom. One time I went into the kitchen where they were talking and she was crying.”
    “What?”
    “I remember it clearly because I was afraid my mom would get mad at me for interrupting them.”
    “What would my mom have to be sad about?”
    “I’m not sure. My mom was rubbing her back and she was—”
    “How old were you?” I adjusted my back against the fence.
    “I don’t know. Around seven, I guess.”
    “How could you remember that?”
    “It’s just one of those vivid memories.”
    Irrational anger surged in my chest and I wasn’t sure why. “Well, maybe she was worried about your mom. Maybe she was pleading with your mom to leave your jerk of a dad.”
    “My dad didn’t start drinking until his back injury five years ago.” His voice was tight, hurt.
    I stood. “Well, my mom had a perfect life, so I don’t know what she’d have to be sad about.”
    “Charlie.”
    “I’m tired.” I went back in the house, letting the door shut harder than I should’ve.

Chapter 13
    T he next morning I woke up to find Gage looking through the makeup catalog Amber had given me. “Is there something you need to tell me?” he asked. “Since when do you . . .”
    I threw my pillow at his head. “Maybe I decided to go girly.”
    “As if. Dad would freak if he saw you in this much makeup. Plus, it’s not you.”
    I didn’t understand what that meant. I stared at the girl on the front of the catalog he held. She was soft and feminine and beautiful—like the wedding picture of my mom in the hall. So which part of that wasn’t me?
    I turned onto my stomach and put my arms over my head. Who was I kidding? None of that was me. “Someone just brought it by my work the other day.”
    “Amber?” he asked, turning the catalog toward me and showing me her picture in the front where she had circled her name in blue ink. “Is that this girl here? Because if so, you have to introduce us. She’s hot.”
    I rolled out of bed and snatched the catalog from him. “What do you want?”
    “We’re playing soccer on the beach. Let’s go.”
    “I don’t feel like it today.”
    He stopped cold, then looked around like he was in some alternate world. “Um . . . what? You don’t feel like playing soccer?” He put his hand on my forehead, then turned me in a full circle. “What have you done with my sister?”
    Truth was, I didn’t feel like seeing Braden because I knew I’d behaved badly the night before. What he said had caught me off guard, and I ended up throwing him and his family under a bus to make myself feel better. And even though I knew it hurt him, what he had said still bothered me, so I wasn’t quite ready to apologize.
    “I have to work in a few hours.” I didn’t have to work today at all. He didn’t notice my lie.
    “That whole work thing is really cramping your style. You need to talk to Dad about the fact that you’ve learned your lesson. I’m sure he just wanted to see if you’d get a job.”
    “Yeah, I’m sure. I’ll talk to him soon.” Later. I was finally making good money . . . and work wasn’t as bad as it had seemed at first. It was something different that my brothers had never done, and I kind of liked that.
    “So really? No soccer?”
    “Really.”
     
    As I was folding shirts on tables at work the next day, Linda began folding next to me. “Your aura is blue today. Most of the time that means sadness. Is everything okay?”
    Wow, even my aura was upset about my tiff with Braden. “I’m fine.” I folded another shirt. “It’s just weird when a belief you’ve had your whole life is suddenly challenged.”
    “What belief is that?”
    “Nothing. I just pictured someone a certain way, and maybe they weren’t that way at all.” Maybe I had no memories of my mom because