The Variables by Shelbi Wescott Read Free Book Online Page A

breath. “Not right this second, Blair. Don’t you have any sense of what just happened in here? Why don’t you show some goddamn self-awareness?” Then he pushed the boardroom doors open and left everyone standing there, glancing at each other in awkward silence.  
    Scott’s hands were still shaking and he balled them into fists to steady them. Claude put a comforting hand on his back.  
    “This will all be over soon, friend,” Claude whispered.  
    Blair turned and looked at Scott. She cleared her throat and tightened her grip on her bag, sliding it up higher on her shoulder.
    “Fine,” Blair said to no one in particular, her lips pursed. “I’ll just tell you myself. My father and I have been discussing the future for the child—”
    Without waiting for her to finish, Claude opened the boardroom door wide and held a hand outstretched for Scott to exit first.
    “Excuse us,” Claude said to her. “We’re quite busy, Ms. Truman. Perhaps you could take this up with Mr. King at another time. Make an appointment.” Scott hesitated, looking between the hallway and Blair. She had gone rigid, and she bit the inside of her right cheek. Her nostrils flared.  
    “Of course,” she managed to say before Claude and Scott left her standing alone in the boardroom with only the empty monitors and the lemon smell of cleaning wipes to keep her company.  

CHAPTER TWO

    Lucy had never had a boyfriend before the end of the world.
    She had kissed people, sure, various boys here and there, and in the sixth grade she had held hands with an eighth grade boy every day during lunch; he was a cross-country runner with big ears and the beginnings of a mustache, and he always smelled like garlic. Then they ran out of small talk and went their separate ways. When they finally stopped standing in the cafeteria breezeway, clasping their sweaty palms together, discussing teachers and movies and gossiping about classmates, it was a relief: no more forced conversations. No more banal text messages. No more embarrassing questions at dinner.
    Dating was awkward. Each and every time she attempted to engage in that teenage rite of passage, Lucy couldn’t understand the attraction of muddling through social interactions like bumbling idiots. The boys never talked, or if they did, they were uncultured jerks who approached her acceptance of a cheap dinner as permission to paw at her once the sun went down.
    Ethan had once told her she needed to date different guys.
    But Lucy didn’t think Ethan’s track record seemed worth emulating. After all, Anna’s idiocy was so evident that Lucy often theorized about what Ethan got out of that particular relationship. The suspected answer painted an unflattering portrait of her brother and of love in general.
    Unlike Salem, Lucy hadn’t romanticized the idea of falling in love. She hoped it would happen to her, and longed to be someone’s chosen one, but she understood that desire was fleeting. It was easy to slough off the absence of a boyfriend.
    But now she had Grant.
    It was surreal.
    Unexpected.
    Natural, even.
    Maybe it was because of their shared history, maybe it was because they didn’t have to second guess intentions, but everything about being Grant’s girlfriend felt easy. He grabbed her hand while they walked down the sterile corridors of the System, and he wrapped his long fingers around her waist. Her heart fluttered each time and she’d look at him, really look at him, and think, this guy likes me. They laughed together, played together, and talked in hushed tones during quiet hours about the future.
    The future. Being in love masked the question marks and gloom most of the time. Now they relished the idea that there was a future together, no matter how uncertain that future looked.
    Not so long ago, two sweethearts in their senior year of high school would have much to think about. Would they go to college together? How would they handle jealousy and time apart? Were they a burden