All Those Words

Chapter 10

Asa

"Where's Cece?" Mrs. Harmon asks on Sunday morning.

"Getting ready in my room," Trixie answers, sipping on her orange juice.

All of us are at the dining table having breakfast together as a family. Yuna is in a high chair, kicking her legs happily as she eats. Shale is practically inhaling his sugary cereal as if he's trying to replenish energy that he lost yesterday. Lennon looks like she got a decent amount of sleep, eating her fruit loops and gulping down the milk while Trixie sits hungrily as she waits for her friend to come down. All I have is a cup of coffee even though I'm more wide awake than usual but Calysta looks like she's about to fall asleep in her scrambled eggs. I had offered her a mug of coffee but she rejected it, mumbling something about caffeine making her anxiety worse.

"Honey, you look like the walking dead," Mr. Harmon says as he notices her dark circles, too. "What were you doing last night?"

Calysta's eyes slowly meet mine and I feel a pang of guilt that I'm probably the reason she didn't get any sleep last night. But Lennon and I pretty much passed out within minutes. I'm torn between telling him that it's my fault because she hasn't opened her mouth yet and keeping my mouth shut since no one had noticed that I had slept in her room in the first place. I had woken up earlier than everyone else and made sure I felt no evidence of sleeping with her.

"Assignments," she said finally, her eyes dropping from mine to her breakfast plate. "I wanted to finish them early so I could have Sunday free."

"Maybe you should try to get some sleep," he tells her, going back to his newspaper.

"Maybe," she mumbles when we hear footsteps pounding down the stairs.

"Good morning, everyone!" Cece's voice makes Calysta jump and I fight the urge to smile.

"Finally," Trixie rolls her eyes. "I've been waiting for you so we can eat together."

Cece's smile falters as she looks at Trixie and I continue to watch them over my coffee mug. Cece's lips twitch back into a smile but it looks more like a grimace or as if she's trying to force herself to look happy.