The Summer I Left novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Don't Tell Brynn

I took my phone to the stairwell so I wouldn't wake Eddie.

I sat on the concrete steps under a flickering light and read the message again.

*This is Nate. Please don't tell Brynn.*

I wrote back with my thumbs stiff.

*How did you get this number?*

The reply came in under a minute.

*From Mom's phone. She was asleep. I copied it. I am sorry. I did not know another way.*

*Mom.* He still called her that, like a word he was trying on.

I wrote: *Why are you texting me?*

*Because I did not tear the photos. Brynn tore them. I watched through the gap in the door.*

I read that twice.

*Then why did you scream and let Dad hit me?*

The dots appeared, vanished, appeared again.

*Because Brynn says if I tell the truth, they will send me back. I do not know where back is. I have no house to go back to. I was afraid.*

I put my forehead against my knees.

For two months I had thought Nate hated me.

I had thought he was a boy who needed the house to himself.

I wrote, harder than I meant to: *You have thrown water in my face. You have called me a parasite.*

*Yes.*

*That's all? Yes?*

*I am sorry about the water. It was the only way I could think of to make you leave my eyes. I did not mean to make you leave the house.*

I stared at that.

*Make me leave your eyes.*

I typed: *What does that mean?*

*I scream at your face. Not at you. Your voice is okay. Your hands are okay. When you talk through a door I like the sound. I cannot explain the face by text. It is too big.*

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