It’s lunchtime when I see my mom again. “Hi, sweetie. I haven’t seen you in a while. I have to go now, but Nancy and John have offered for you to stay. They’ve even been kind enough to let you stay the night if you wanted to.”
“That’s very kind of them. If it’s okay with you, I think I would like to stay the night actually.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow then?”
“Thanks mom.”
“Bye.”
I sit back down for lunch. The original amount of thirty people has been reduced to five people: Sam, Nathan, Nancy, John, and myself. “Thank you very much for letting me stay,” I say to Nancy and John.
“It’s a pleasure to have you. I think Sam is happy to have someone his age visit. And especially happy that the someone is a girl.”
“Grandpa!” Sam blushes. John just laughs. I look over at Nathan and Sasha. Nathan’s eyes flit away as I look at him. I don’t think anything of it. I continue on with my food.
After lunch, we all play board games for a couple of hours. We get hungry again around 2:30, so I go to the kitchen and get snacks for all of us. As I get the cheese and crackers out, Nathan comes in. “Hey,” I say. He smiles as if to say hi. “Can I help you with anything?” He asks.
“I’m good for now, but thanks for the offer.” He walks over to me and says; “Are you sure?”
“Maybe you can take in the drinks?” As he walks by me to get to the fridge, his hand runs along my lower back. Probably just an accident, I think. Once he starts to walk back with the drinks in his hands, he gives me a nudge and I stumble forward into the kitchen counter. With his back to me, he peers over his shoulder and gives me a sideways smile. He’s just playing with me. I laugh a bit. “Chloe?”
“Yeah?”
“I…uh…” His face gets red and he abruptly turns away and quickly walks out the door. I wonder what that was about? I grab the cheese and crackers and walk back to the games room.
We eat dinner around six. “The pasta was very delicious, thank you,” I say to Ms. Pecanhogen.
“You are very welcome,” she responds cheerily as she always does.
