I did the reverse of the route Daphne had taught me and arrived at the meeting twenty minutes early, puffed up with a sense of accomplishment. I hung around on the sidewalk waiting for Daphne to show until Everett stuck his head out the door and said we were getting started. “Don’t you want to come in, River?” I didn’t. I wanted to tell her about the bus. She’d smile at me and say I’d done well. Her community service project. I watched the door. Halfway through Mason’s story about eating a roll of cookie dough and then feeling too depressed about it to leave the house, Daphne walked in. Rather than taking the empty seat next to me, she crossed the circle and squeezed in next to Christopher. Maybe before the day Penny broke my heart I wouldn’t have interpreted a move like that as some sort of statement, but now I was hyperattuned to the small actions of others, and as I sat there next to that empty seat I thought: Daphne is mad at me. I went back over the night before. After the dance we went to a diner in Hollywood Maggie knew about where Daphne explained our abrupt departure.
What do You think about Tell Us Something True (2016)?
