You and Me at the End of the World by Brianna Bourne

There’s nothing there, except for one gnarled branch bending farther over the road than the others. Nobody’s out there, and sitting here frozen will just give my imagination a chance to rear its ugly head.Īs if on cue, a shadow shifts outside the passenger window, right at the edge of my vision. It’s been five days, and I haven’t seen another person. Maybe the front door of the house across the street will swing open, a woman in sunglasses will trot down the steps, keys jangling, and get in her car and zoom off. I don’t know what I’m waiting for-maybe I’m clinging to a shred of hope that something normal might still happen. Maybe having something to read will turn the volume down on the thoughts I haven’t been able to silence. If I turn back now, all that’s waiting is my echoing, empty house and a routine that’s already starting to feel stale. I keep my mom’s car keys in my hand, squeezing as if the pointe shoe charm on her key chain will transfer some of her famous ballerina stoicism into me. The highways should be droning like the white noise on a vintage vinyl record player-always there, but you only hear it between songs. The kind of quiet that reminds me of long summer breaks and lazy mosquitos, of my grandma’s house in the backwoods of East Texas. It’s only April-it shouldn’t be this hot. I’ve parked here a hundred times before, half a block away from the used bookstore my best friend Astrid’s family owns.Īll those other times feel like another life. The temperature display on the dashboard reads ninety-nine degrees, but it’s cool and safe inside my mom’s big white SUV. Light filters down through the twisted branches of the oak trees lining the road, shielding me from the worst of the Houston sun. The street I’m parked on is as still as a painting. After all, I designed the plan so I wouldn’t have to think about the empty. Go out and get more books.īad things happen when I stray from the plan. I should have squashed down that want, that voice inside me that said, Go on, Hannah.

You and Me at the End of the World by Brianna Bourne