“What’s wrong with you?” Ciana muttered beside me, keeping her voice low so only I could hear her. “You look sad. I don’t like it.”
“I can’t visit Nova this weekend,” I answered back just as low.
Her eyes widened but filled with sympathy. She knew how hard it had been for me when Nova had left that first time, and then when I got back from visiting her for my birthday this year. She’d tried to cheer me up, but nothing had worked because the only thing that could make it better was Nova. All I thought about all day, every day, was if she was safe. Was she happy, or had someone made her cry? Did she miss me as much as I missed her? Then at the end of the day, I saw her smiling face via video call, and all those worries faded.
“I’m sorry,” my cousin whispered. “Is there something I can do?”
I shook my head. “It will be okay. Mom promised we would go for Christmas.”
Ciana gave my arm a squeeze. “Well, if you need to talk, I’m here.”
“Yeah, I know. Thanks, Ciana.”
She rested her head on my arm the rest of the way to school, offering me comfort in the only way she knew I would accept, but it did nothing to ease the tightness in my chest and throat. The limo pulled up in front of our school to drop the two of us off first before the driver would move along the path to the back entrance for the kindergartners.
Our school was some old, Gothic-style building that belonged in a scary movie. It was private, no doubt costing our parents a huge chunk of cash for us to attend, but it was considered not one of the best, but the best private primary school in the country. My fellow classmates were all just as rich as my own
family, not a single one of them better than us in any way. But some were politician’s sons and daughters, and they all stuck up their noses at us, as if they thought it was beneath them to share the same air as us.
It was amusing in a way. They could act like they were better, smarter, more entitled to everything, but the truth was, if my mom so much as looked at their parents the wrong way, they would crap their pants and cower in fear. Each and every one of them. I knew, because I’d seen it happen right in front of me during a parents’ night just the year before.
It had been a casual type of event, where we’d all been invited to meet our new teachers with our parents. One of the boys in my class was making rude comments about Ciana’s newly developing chest and her dress. Zia Scarlett hadn’t heard him, but Mom had. She’d told him to keep his mouth shut and if she caught him so much as blinking at Ciana, she would pay him a special visit while he slept.
His parents had heard her not-so-subtle threat and had turned to blast her, only to practically swallow their tongues when they realized it was Anya Vitucci they had come face-to-face with. The retort they had been about to deliver had dried up on their tongues, but Mom had still taken a step in their direction. I’d stood there watching as the boy’s mother had started to tremble, and then the room had filled with a foul smell as the father had released gas so horrible, it was as if he’d actually crapped his pants.
Ciana still wasn’t convinced he hadn’t. She and Zariah had giggled for days after she’d told her elder sister all about what had happened.
But the whole incident had embarrassed the boy, and he’d been tormenting Ciana ever since. Not that she cared. She knew I would protect her from the little punk, and I did—every time he opened his mouth to say something mean or degrading to her.
At lunchtime, I couldn’t stand it anymore and went into the bathroom to call Nova. My lunch break was at eleven, which made it eight o’clock her time, but I knew she would be awake. Her brother and two cousins would be leaving for school soon, and she always woke up early with them. With her birthday being in November, she didn’t get to start school for another year, so she would be home.
It only rang once before her face appeared on my phone’s screen. She was on the floor of her room, had probably been playing one of her games on the iPad I’d given her. I could picture her on her stomach, doing some math game or reading one of the books I’d downloaded the last time I’d been at her house.
“Hi!” she greeted with a big smile on her face.
For the first time, seeing her on my phone didn’t ease the tightness in my chest. If anything, it only made it worse. I swallowed hard a few times before I could tell her “Hi” in return.
Her smile dropped, and her green eyes began to glitter. “What’s wrong? Are you sad? You look sad. Do you need a hug? Where is Ciana? She needs to hug you right now!”
I definitely needed a hug, but only hers would help me. “Nova…my mom is sick.”
“Oh no, is she going to be okay? Does she have a tummy ache?”
“Yeah, kind of,” I told her, swallowing roughly again. The lump in my throat only got worse and worse, and my nose was burning. “She’s pregnant, and she’s been really sick. We won’t… I can’t come to your party this weekend.”
The glittery look in her eyes only got brighter. “Wh-what?” she whispered, her chin already trembling. “But…but you promised.”
“I know.” I closed my eyes. The way her voice was shaking told me she was about to cry, and I didn’t know if I could keep my own emotions in check if I looked at her right then. “I’m sorry, Nova.”
“You promised,” she repeated, a little bit of anger bleeding into her tone. I hated her being mad just as much as I did her crying. But her anger had never been directed at me before. It was usually reserved for Garret. “You’re breaking your promise.”
“I wish I didn’t have to. But Mom is sick, Nova. Please try to understand. I want to see you, but I can’t.” I pressed the palm of my free hand into one of my eyes when they started to sting.
“I’m sorry your mommy is sick, but can’t…can’t your daddy bring you?”
“He’s not home. He’s on a work trip,” I tried to explain. “I promise, I’ll make it up to you. I’ll come for Christmas next month. We can stay for a few extra days. I just can’t right now.”
“No,” she cried, her anger only increasing. “I want you to come now. You promised you would come to my party. That’s all I wanted. I didn’t ask my mommy and daddy for any presents because all I want is to see and play with you.”