Where Sea Meets Sky by Karina Halle Read Free Book Online

have some news.”
    She tilts her head and appraises me. “Oh?”
    “Two things, actually,” I say. I lean over and pick up the acceptance letter, handing it to her. “One is I got accepted to Emily Carr. I start January fifteenth.”
    She looks skeptical at first. Then she takes the paper from me and she nods as she looks it over, as if she’s impressed. “Very good, Joshua. I guess that means you’ll have to cut your hours at work.” A line of worry threads her brow. “Have you talked to them about this? Will they let you?”
    I lean back in the chair. “It doesn’t really matter. I’m going to quit. Tomorrow.”
    And then I’m smiling because I said it and it’s real.
    “Well, you need to have a job, Joshua,” she says, tossing the papers back on the desk. She tips up her chin and folds her arms. She looks like a disgruntled schoolteacher from an Archie comic.
    “I’ll get something,” I say. “Don’t worry about me.”
    “Someone has to,” she says. Her voice is still stern but she seems to be relaxing a bit.
    So I ruin it. I’m good at that. “So the second thing is that I’m going to New Zealand for a few months. I won’t be home for Christmas. I will be back for school.”
    She’s stunned. She’s trying to process what I said and realizes it doesn’t make a lick of sense.
    “New Zealand?” she mouths.
    “I just bought a plane ticket,” I tell her but I’m lying. I haven’t done that yet, I’m just curious about her reaction. If I say it, it will happen. “I leave November twenty-third and come back on January tenth.” She’s still speechless, so I go on to add, “I’ll find a new job when I get back. Something I want to do. Something that works with my school schedule. I’ll pull it off, I always do.”
    “But you don’t,” she says, and I’d be lying if I said that didn’t sting like a wasp. But as with a wasp, I swat it away.
    “I will, Mom,” I tell her. I’m starting to feel defensive, and when I get defensive I get angry. There’s no use being angry with my mom; she always uses it against you. It’s her weapon, along with her overly pointy fingernails. “It’s just a short trip, what’s the big deal?”
    She narrows her eyes. “The big deal is you have no money.”
    “How do you know? You have no idea what I save.” And that’s the truth. I have been saving for emergencies, for rainy days, for the moment I’m sure she’s going to kick me out of the house. It’s probably the most responsible thing I’ve done, and I’m about to do the most irresponsible thing with it.
    “A credit card—” she says and I raise my hand, cutting her off.
    “My credit card limit is low, my payments are manageable, and I don’t think I really need to explain myself anymore.”
    She raises her eyebrows, eyes wide. She’s not used to me talking back.
    “And anyway,” I continue, “I’ll still pay my rent when I’m gone, so don’t worry.”
    She sucks at her teeth and looks around the darkened room, as if it will give her answers. Where did I go wrong? I can imagine her saying.
    Finally she looks back at me and she seems tired, like the lines around her eyes suddenly deepened. “This is just so . . . impulsive, Joshua. You’re just like your sister.”
    That was meant to cut like a knife, but it doesn’t hurt. “And just like my sister, are you going to let me back into the house when I return? Or will the doors lock on me, too?”
    Her eyes narrow into slits. “That is not fair. Vera went to live with a married man. That behavior is unacceptable.”
    After all this time, my mother still doesn’t get it. It doesn’t matter that Vera is happy, that Mateo got a divorce pretty much right away, that things are great for them and they’ve beaten a lot of those heavy odds stacked against them. None of that matters. Your fuckups will never let you shine in the Miles household.
    “Well, she did it anyway, despite what you think, and I’ll be doing the