Page 20 of Exchanged

“Nah, it’s okay,” Garrett says. “I get worked up over games sometimes, too.”

I don’t get worked up over games. This feeling is new to me, and I hate that I come out of this situation looking like a rage-fueled loser while Garrett gets to be the reasonable one, that my family thinks less of me and more of him.

“Fuck off,” I say.

Before anyone can react, I storm out of the room.

The only problem is that I storm out in the wrong direction and now I’m in the kitchen, my only escape route being the back door. I don’t really want to go outside, but I also don’t want to go back through the dining room with my family and their disappointed glares to get to my bedroom. I’m committed at this point. I slam the door on my way out and sit on the back steps.

The night air is cool, and I wrap my hands around my bare arms. The sound of some sort of late-summer insect chirrups nearby. My breathing slows. Out here, Lords of the Shadowrealm feels distant and small and stupid.

A few minutes later, Aunt Liz sits down next to me.

“Well, that was a side of Enzo I’ve never seen before.” She says it in a way only she can: telling me that I screwed up but somehow not making me feel too shitty.

“That’s because Dad and Emma don’t cheat at games.”

“Oh really?” she says dryly. “Is that it? You felt cheated?”

I grunt in response.

“Or was it because you felt like you had something to prove and got caught up in it?”

I sit on that truth bomb for a few minutes. I look at Aunt Liz. “I just hate that I’m going to spend the next year living with someone who brings out the worst in me.”

“Why? Because he’s different from what you’re used to? Because he challenges you? Because he changes our family dynamic? Isn’t that what an exchange student is for?”

“I thought it was to learn about another culture.” I give a hollow laugh. “We dropped the ball on that part.”

“Have you been to Atlanta?” Aunt Liz snorts. “Because I have, and compared to Irontown, that place could be a whole ’nother country.”

This makes me smile. We sit for a few more minutes in the dark. A car starts a couple of blocks away, then silence.

She looks at me sideways. “Did your dad tell you about his conversation with Garrett’s parents?”

I shake my head.

She nods, and I can tell she’s trying hard to figure out what to say next, how much to divulge. “I was there. Working the cash register. He was in the kitchen, and well … Do you remember that time when you were in sixth grade and that one kid, Evan Hoagie or something—”

“Evan Hegge?”

“That’s the one. Evan Hegge was bullying you at the bus stop, calling you names every day, pushing you around?”

“Yeah.”

“And when your dad called his parents they tried to blame you?”

“Oh yeah.” I grin at the memory. “Dad went batshit on them. Swearing like crazy. Name-dropped all of his friends on the school board and told them he would get Evan expelled.”

Aunt Liz nods, then her smile fades. “It was like that with Garrett’s parents.”

“What did they do?” I ask, wondering what could possibly get Dad so riled up about a kid he barely knows.

“I didn’t hear all of their end of the conversation. And what I did gather isn’t my story to share.”

“Then why are you telling me?”

“Because Garrett needs a friend, and you need to learn that there are good people from places outside Irontown.”