Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann

just figured you were hurting. I mean, after the way you’ve been acting the last few weeks. And thought . . . well. Fuck it. Never mind. It was a stupid thing to do.” He sighs. “I’m sorry, Kendall. Okay? I didn’t mean to scare you. Hell.”
    Kendall looks at the dirt. Shocked. Embarrassed, a little, but angry, too. And there’s something sad about it all . . . sad that it wasn’t Nico out there, even after her nightmare. But still, she doesn’t explode like she thought she would when he first started talking. She just turns away. “Okay.” She shrugs and walks back into school, leaving him standing there.
    A minute later he slides into the desk next to her and stares straight ahead.
    They don’t talk all day.
    Kendall just stares at Nico’s desk, thinking. Thinking about how Tiffany Quinn sat there and disappeared. Andhow Nico sat there and disappeared. And now it’s all she can think about. What would happen if she sat there? Maybe disappearing would be better than all this. And at the very least, sitting there would be like wearing one of Nico’s shirts. A comfort, being where he was. Maybe it could help her get over him.
    Maybe tomorrow she’ll sit there.
    Things are tense in the truck on the way home. Unaware, Marlena chatters about how she can’t wait until she gets her cast off, and Jacián and Kendall stare straight ahead until they’re all sitting in front of Kendall’s house.
    “Thanks,” Kendall mumbles as usual. As she slams the truck door shut, she catches Jacián’s eye and sees the fear in it. He swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing, and then he glances away as Marlena says goodbye through the window in the midst of her babbling. Kendall stands there for a minute, puzzled, and then turns toward the house. It’s not until she’s outside harvesting potatoes that it dawns on her why he had such a scared look in his eyes.
    He’s from a big city. A place where people steal cars if you don’t make it too difficult for them not to. He really thinks she and her family are going to press charges against him for trespassing.
    Kendall stops what she’s doing for a moment, and shenearly laughs out loud for the first time in weeks. Poor Jacián. He’s probably been worried sick about it all day.
    She thinks about what he said. How he thought maybe she was hurting, and tears start leaking from her eyes. She didn’t know the guy actually had a heart underneath all that anger. But the only person she can talk to who would fix her pain is Nico.
    On their way back to the house from the fields, Kendall tells her mother what happened the night before.
    “You should have woken me up,” Mrs. Fletcher says with a frown.
    “It wasn’t that big of a deal,” Kendall says, and today, during daylight, and knowing the truth, it really doesn’t feel like a big deal. “And you guys are working so hard, I didn’t want to wake you up. So, do you want to press charges against Jacián?”
    “Don’t be ridiculous. What would people think of us? What a terrible thing to do to that poor boy. After all he’s done for you, driving you around.”
    Kendall shrugs. But it’s comforting to know her mother thinks he’s not a bad guy.
    When Sheriff Greenwood calls, he tells the same story as Jacián told, in lesser detail. “Your parents want to press charges for trespassing? If so, I need to talk to them,” he says. “I can’t see you all doing it, but it’s your right.”
    “No, I talked with my mother. We don’t want to do that.”
    “Good. I’ll let him know. He’ll be happy to hear it. I’ll tell him to stay out of people’s driveways at night.”
    “Okay. Thanks.”
    They hang up.
    Mrs. Fletcher smiles at Kendall from the kitchen, where she warms up leftover beef stew in the microwave. “So, Kendall.”
    Kendall sighs. “Yes?”
    “Have you been thinking about other colleges?”
    She flops her head in her hands. “I’m too tired and starving to have this conversation. Can we talk