Page 54 of Somewhere Only We Know
“She’s twelve. And her name’s Ava.”
Jack and Ava. I liked filling in these negative spaces of Jack—watching them fill up to form a complete person.
“Cool, my sister’s fifteen and her name’s Vivian. She’s a total jerk,” I added with a laugh. “Is yours?”
He shook his head. “She’s actually kind of… a saint. And driven and smart. She’s going to do something spectacular one day. Which is good, so my parents can have one reliable kid.”
“One?” I asked. “You also seem driven and smart.”
An appalled expression came over his face. “Take that back!”
“What? You don’t want to be smart?” I laughed. My pulse was now at a normal pace and I pulled my hands back up to the table, reaching for my teacup.
“I’mfine. But I definitely don’t have my life figured out like Ava does. Her like, patronus or whatever, would be a spreadsheet.”
Tea went up my nose and I choked. “Shut up.”
He grinned. “I’m funnier than her, though.”
“I doubt it,” I said, dabbing my face with a napkin.
“Anyway. I’m kind of… messing around until I figure it all out,” he said with a shrug.
“That’s okay,” I said. “Not everyone can be Ava.”
“Or you,” he said pointedly. It was complimentary, and my cheeks warmed. I’d hit every record in K-pop stardom, and having this guy compliment me casually made me turn into a beet.
I tapped the photography book in front of me. “What about photography? Seems like you must like it if you special order books.”
He shrugged again. “I do like it, a lot. But it’s not… exactly a career path for me. Art, I mean.”
It took everything in my power to keep my lips sealed. To not blurt out, “I am the living embodiment of making art a career!”
Instead I cupped my tea. Waited a few beats before I asked, “Well, what is your path, then?”
The question seemed to dislodge something in him. The confident swagger left and an uncertain hunch in his shoulders was all that remained.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
JACK
If anyone else had asked me this, I would have a BS answer ready, while being inwardly annoyed by the question. But coming from Lucky, it felt different. I wanted to respond to her, even if my answer wasn’t all that great.
I cleared my throat to break the conspicuous silence. “Well. That’s the thing. I don’t have a path and I’m okay with that.”
She nodded. “Yeah, we’re young. That’s okay.”
But I could hear the strain in her voice. To remain neutral. I knew what Lucky did to get where she was. At the age ofthirteenshe had decided what she wanted to do with her life and she did it. Someone like me—aimless and unsure—was a mystery to her.
“I do some photography work on the side,” I said cautiously, suddenly needing her to know that I wasn’t someone withoutanyinterests.
Her eyes lit up. “Really? So youarea photographer! What kind of work do you do?”
Quick, Jack. Something completely unrelated to the media… something safe…
“Weddings.”
She exclaimed, “Oh! That must be nice. Witnessing love over and over again.”
