Free Through Indigo's Eyes by Tara Taylor Page A

until my mom called me for dinner. At the dinner table, I picked at my meat and pushed my potatoes around. She gave me a concerned look from across the table, so I sat up and shoveled some corn into my mouth. I did not want her coming to my room tonight asking questions, and she had that look that said she might. I refused to make further eye contact. When dinner ended, I helped with the dishes, all the while making small talk so she wouldn’t pick up on my mood. When we were done, I begged off from any more conversation and headed down the hall to my room. Once in, I shut the door. Tightly.
    I put on music and tried to listen to the lyrics for inspiration. Nothing helped take away the chill that I was now feeling. I wore two shirts, a sweater, socks, and sweatpants. My stomach ached, my head throbbed, and I kept glancing at the clock. I had to wait until nine to call Lacey. I knew she was out with Burke.
    At least five times, I flopped down on my bed because I couldn’t concentrate on anything but what I would say to Lacey. When I heard the beep on my clock radio, telling me it was nine, I sighed. I ran through my lines one more time before I punched in her number. She sounded breathless when she answered.
    â€œDid you just get home?” I asked.
    â€œYeah. Literally like a minute ago,” she puffed.
    â€œCan you talk?”
    â€œGive me a sec.”
    From the crashing sound, I guessed she had thrown her pink phone on her night table. The seconds ticked by, and they matched my beating heart. A delay was not what I needed or wanted. I heard a few more indistinct sounds, then finally her voice again. “Okay,” she said. “I’m good.” Although I couldn’t see her, I knew Lacey had plopped onto her bed and was lying back on the pile of cushions and pillows that adorned it.
    â€œI have something to tell you,” I said. No sense stalling. I’d stalled long enough.
    â€œAre you seriously going after John?”
    â€œMaybe,” I said.
    â€œI saw you talking to him in the hallway today,” she continued. “Indie, I swear he likes you. I’m not his biggest fan, but hey, you like him, and that’s all that maters. I want to see you happy, girlfriend.”
    â€œI don’t know about that, but I want to tell him I like him.”
    â€œThen tell him.”
    â€œI was thinking of passing him a note.”
    â€œA note? Like we used to do in grade seven?”
    â€œOkay, so dumb idea.”
    â€œNot at all. At least he’d know. I’ll do it for you.”
    â€œYeah, at least he’d know,” I said slowly. “And then I’d find out if he likes me back.” I paused. Life was about truth. Lacey deserved the truth. “I have something to tell you,” I said.
    â€œâ€˜Kay.” She paused. “Tell me what you have to tell me, then I have something super important to tell you.” She giggled. “But you go first.”
    I breathed, swallowed, exhaled, then sucked in another big breath.
    â€œHurry up!” Lacey sounded so upbeat, but also really impatient. “What I have to tell you is so—just so amazing.”
    â€œI had a vision,” I blurted out.
    â€œOh! Cool. Am I marrying Burke?”
    â€œNot exactly.”
    â€œOkay. We got engaged, and he gave me a big diamond?”
    Why was she talking like this? “You’re only in high school. Do you really want to get married?”
    â€œBurke and I are thinking of applying to the same university. We could live together. Lots of couples do that.”
    â€œBut you’re only seventeen.” Sometimes Lacey exasperated me. She was not a person to think anything through, unlike me. I thought everything through to the last minute detail and then did nothing about it.
    â€œWe will be eighteen by then. Anyway, love isn’t about age.”
    I tried to absorb her words—well, one word, really, the word love , which caused me to