Thirteen Plus One by Lauren Myracle

It was just me, him, and Mags. Sandra was off with Bo, and Ty was being brave and spending the night at his friend Lexi’s house. It was kind of like Lars and me were the mom and dad ... not that I would ever say that to Lars out loud. But practicing being older was one of the items on my list of things to do, and here I was doing it. Yay!
    I smiled to cover my thoughts and gave him the most recent Dinah update.
    “If she has to go, she might as well make the most of it, right?” I said. “But the problem is, Dinah has no desire to see the world.”
    “Seeing the world can be overrated,” Lars said.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Nothing. Go on.”
    “I just think she should see it as an opportunity.” I snuggled closer to him on the sofa and pressed my jean-clad thigh against his. “Don’t you?”
    I was being a little sneaky, I admit. Lars’s family was big on traveling, and last year they’d spent the whole summer in Prague while his mom did some fellowship thing. It sucked, as I had no secret portal that led from my closet to the Czech Republic.
    What that meant in the context of our conversation was that yes, in theory I was in favor of embracing travel and adventure. But I was feeling happy at the thought of him saying, “Yes, Dinah should see it as an opportunity. But my opportunity is right here. My opportunity is you.”
    “I can understand why Dinah wouldn’t want to go out of town,” he said. “That’s all.”
    “Oh yeah?” I said coyly. What he was expressing was nice, if I read between the lines. But I wanted more.
    He put his arm around me. “Yeah. What’s wrong with Atlanta?”
    “Nothing,” I said.
    “What’s wrong with wanting to hang with people you already know?”
    I liked this game. “Not a thing.”
    “Go somewhere new, and you’ll experience things you otherwise wouldn’t. I’m not saying you won’t. But do you have to travel the world to be happy? No. You can be happy anywhere ... as long as you’re with the right person.”
    A thrill tickled my spine, because what he was saying was that I, Winnie, was the right person. His right person. As if to prove it, he pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head.
    I melted into him like warm butter. Baby Mags was warm and buttery, too. We were a big warm buttery family, and I thought I might dissolve from happiness.
    “I wouldn’t leave, if I had the choice,” he murmured. “I’d stay right here with you, all summer long.”
    My body stayed where it was. But my muscles contracted. “I’m sorry, what?”
    He exhaled.
    I pulled away. “Lars?!”
    He couldn’t meet my gaze. “My mom got offered another fellowship. In Germany this time.”
    I felt sick. I wanted to say, So? Just because she got offered another stupid fellowship, that doesn’t mean she has to take it, does she? And anyway, what’s sogreat about Germany?
    “Tell her you don’t want to go,” I said. Show some spine. Stick up for yourself!
    “Winnie ...”
    I scooted to the far end of the couch with baby Maggie in my arms. She whimpered, perhaps because I was separating her from her cuddly boy-shaped stuffed animal. Well, I was being separated from my cuddly boy-shaped stuffed animal, too.
    “You could stay with Bryce,” I said.
    “My parents would never let me.”
    I pressed my lips together. I could feel sullenness coming on, and although I didn’t like myself when I was sullen, there was nothing I could do to stave it off. Or maybe there was. Maybe I just didn’t want to.
    “Have you asked?” I said.
    He stretched his legs out in front of him and let his head drop onto the sofa cushion. “I thought you didn’t like Bryce.”
    Maybe not, but I liked him better than I liked Germany. My face by this point had hardened into a petulant mask. Especially my jaw. I would probably get TMJ, or whatever that disease was where you had to have your jaw wired shut and live on a liquid diet and use a computer activated voice synthesizer in order to talk, and