Less than four months left. I wasn’t sure how Jack would react after Cole had showed up at school as “Neal.” I would’ve understood if he decided to completely ignore me, and maybe even ditched out on Mrs. Stone’s classroom after school. But I was not expecting him to seek me out at lunch. I was sitting in my usual nook next to the drinking fountain when he turned the corner. He sat down on the floor against the opposite wall, facing me. I stared hard at my knitting needles, their frantic pace nearly making them blur. What was he doing? “Jules told me where you’ve been eating lunch,” he said. I nodded, but I didn’t look up. “Is this okay?” he asked. I wanted to say no, but that answer would have required further explanation, and I didn’t want that. So I nodded once. We ate in silence. I worried about what we would say to each other, but it never came up. He didn’t say another word. When I got to Mrs. Stone’s classroom after school, Jack was already there. As I sat down, he stood.
