Better Than Before

A laugh I’d recognize anywhere

“Y’know, Buxbaum, someday you might see it differently.”

was staring—wide, unblinking green eyes—at my cousin as if she was seeing Jesus himself.

“Cool,” I said, still watching her watch him. I knew I couldn’t be rude, even though I wanted to be, so I added, “Hey, Chuck—this is Liz.”

No one had an easier face to read than my next-door neighbor. Liz’s every thought played out for the world, as if her freckles were transmitting Morse code or something.

And at that moment, she was having a million melodramatic romantic thoughts about my cousin.

Fucking awesome.

“Hey, Liz,” Charlie said, wearing a huge-ass grin as he peered at her over the fence. “I’m Charlie. Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” she said, squinting as she smiled back at him.

Fucking lovely.

“I’d stop the bleeding with the shirt off my back if that happened, Lizzie.”