"Make friends with my daughter, and I'll pay you a thousand dollars."
Tara's junior year of high school is turned upside down after she collides into the life of Aurora Rosenberg, the autistic teenage heiress to Rosenberg Technologies. Mr. Rosenberg...
I wake up to the sound of Dawn snoring. I sit up, and see Debra sleeping peacefully, and Aurora turned on her side to face me with a pillow on top of her head. Dawn smacks her lips loudly, and Aurora cringes and gives a little whimper.
I check the time. Yep, it's morning.
I lean over and wave my hand in Aurora's field of vision. When she looks at me, I point towards the main area of the basement, away from the sleeping bags. Then I start scooting out of my sleeping bag as quietly as I can. Aurora seems to figure out what I mean, and she sits up and starts getting up.
I stand up and pick up my clothes for today, which I had left folded on a side table. I see Aurora getting her clothes too, and some pills from her bag.
I go to the bathroom to change and wash my face, and when I come out, I see Aurora standing and waiting for me, fully clothed. We go to Dawn's living room together, where we see Dawn's older sister sitting on a couch, wearing a bathrobe over her pajamas with her short blond hair sticking up from sleep, scrolling through her phone.
Dawn's sister looks up and smiles. "Dawn and Debra usually sleep in," she tells me. "You two could walk Smiley if you wanted."
Smiley? Oh, right, the dog.
"I love walking Smiley!" Aurora says. She runs off on tiptoe, and I follow her. She finds the little white dog chewing on a dog toy. Smiley barks at the sight of Aurora. "Shh!" Aurora says. She turns to me. "Smiley is a good girl. We can walk her. I just need to take my pills first."
I shrug. "Sure!" I mean, I won't turn down an opportunity to spend time with a dog.
Smiley waits with barely-contained excitement while I clip a leash to her collar. Aurora returns, and we hear Dawn's sister call "Borrow some coats! It's cold out!"
Aurora leads me to a hall closet. I grab a tan coat with wool lining, figuring I can unbutton it if I get too hot. Aurora grabs a jacket too, and we slip on our shoes and take the dog out. I hold the leash, and Aurora instructs me to "be firm with Smiley and say no if she wants to run off," a piece of advice that I'm guessing she had gotten from Dawn's family.
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[Brightly-colored cute illustration of Tara by Alyssa Ruppel. Tara has a big smile, and her long hair looks more wavy than curly after having been slept on. You may know Alyssa as alyssaruppel on Wattpad, or lyssar.writes on Instagram.]
We walk through the suburban streets, chatting idly as our breath creates fog in the cool air. We head to the park and walk along the gravel path, since the dew-filled grass is too wet to walk in. Smiley keeps her head low, sniffing the dirt for some sort of olfactory information.
"I love this park!" I say. "My mom and I used to walk here all the time, and just talk."
"That sounds really nice," Aurora says.
"It was. My mom was amazing."
We walk in silence for a moment, looking at the bright blue sky and the way the dew on the grass glitters in the morning sun. Either Aurora didn't notice that I spoke about my mom in past tense, or she thinks I might not want to talk about my mom's death. Either way, I appreciate it.
