Jersy takes a couple of seconds to answer. “Not if you don’t want to,” he says slowly. “We can talk.”
“Yeah?” I let myself breathe.
“Yeah,” he repeats, and he sounds like he means it. I haven’t had an excuse to take a good look at him in so long that my mind has to make up for it. I picture him in jeans and the same white T-shirt he was wearing earlier. He’s not frowning but not smiling either. Maybe he doesn’t know what to think. “So what happened with your dad?” he asks.
I tell him about going to the cottage with my father, how his new apartment is nice but feels small with the three of us there, and that I’m not really mad at him for leaving anymore. My words feel clunky, like I’m just starting to remember how to talk to him. Jersy says it’s cool that things are starting to work out, and I ask him how the rest of his summer was. I feel bad just using the words “the rest.” They make me think about that moment at my door when he realized that I wasn’t going to change my mind. Jersy sounds okay, though. He says that he spent the last week of summer in Kingston with his friends. They saw something weird in the sky while hanging out in his friend’s backyard late one night, and he asks if I believe in UFOs.
“I think there probably are some real ones, but I bet most of them are fake.” It’s so good to be talking to him again, about anything, that I’d stay on the phone spinning UFO theories with him all night if he wanted.
“Or experimental military planes the government doesn’t want us to know about,” Jersy goes. I open my mouth to agree, but he says, “Shit. My cell’s beeping a low-battery warning. Hang on, I have the charger somewhere …”
I picture him rushing around his room, searching under his bed and pushing crap around his desk in the hope of un covering his missing charger. He told me a long time ago that he’s always losing things, and I wonder if that’s because of his insomnia (or whatever he wants to call it) or if it’s just how things are.
I know our conversation has to end sometime and that Jersy probably won’t find his charger before his cell flatlines. My brain has been so consumed with the immediate situation between Audrey, Jersy, and me that I haven’t projected beyond our phone call, and even if I had, I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to predict what will happen to us after we’re disconnected. I haven’t been able to predict anything up until now. Why should this be any different? Adam Porter, my parents’ breakup, Jersy, Nishani, Record Store Guy laying his hand along my forehead—for better or for worse it’s all been a big surprise, and I brace myself for a dial tone, any second now …
I can’t hear anything from the phone. Maybe it’s already happened and I’m just listening to dead air. The silence sounds claustrophobic, but I don’t hang up just yet. I hunch over more and spread my left hand visor-like over my eyebrows, feeling the separation anxiety in advance of the dial tone.
One-one thousand. Hush.
Two-one thousand. Hush. Hush.
Three-one thousand. Hush, hush, hush.
“Got it!” Jersy declares triumphantly. “You still there, Finn?”
I wonder if he can feel the weight of my smile over the phone line. My gaze lands on Samsam stretched out beside my bed. His paws are twitching joyfully in his sleep, like he’s dreaming he’s sprinting after squirrels with no one to stop him. The sight makes me smile deeper still.
“Still here,” I confirm. I hug my knees, feeling so good that I almost want to laugh.
Yes, Jersy, I’m most definitely still here.
lives in the greater Toronto area with her husband. You can visit her Web site and blog at
www.ckkellymartin.com.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2009 by Carolyn Martin
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/teens
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at www.randomhouse.com/teachers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Martin, C. K. Kelly.
One lonely degree / by C. K. Kelly Martin. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: When fifteen-year-old Finn’s world falls apart after a violent sexual encounter, the only person she can talk to is her best friend, Audrey, until beautiful boy Jersy moves back to town and both girls develop feelings for him that threaten to destroy their friendship.
eISBN: 978-0-375-85392-0
[1. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 2. Coming of Age—Fiction. 3. Date rape—Fiction. 4. Love—Fiction. 5. Friendship—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.M3644On 2009
[Fic]—dc22
2008012552
v3.0
Random House Children’s Books supports the
First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books By This Author
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
About the Author
Copyright
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books By This Author
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
About the Author
Copyright