Donut Days by Lara Zielin

“But how is this connected to the prophecy?” I asked. “Assuming, of course, that it is.”
    Jake pressed his fingertips together. “That’s the piece of this I can’t figure out, Em. I feel in my gut there is a connection. I can’t explain it, but I know it’s there. I wanted to tell you about it before, ever since the baptism. I’m sorry I didn’t, but things were . . . well, you know.”
    I stared at the table. If I hadn’t been such a jerk to Jake, he would have told me all this months ago.
    “We should tell my dad this,” I said finally. “It might not be connected to the church, but we should definitely let someone know.”
    Jake’s brown eyes got worried. “You’re probably right,” he said. “But I don’t know if I can. I mean, this is my dad’s company.”
    “But the board is voting about my mom this weekend, ” I said. “Do you really think we can keep everything you just told me a secret?”
    “Cripes, I don’t know,” Jake replied, frustrated. “All I could think about when I got your phone call was that we should talk. I hadn’t gotten much further than that.”
    “Okay,” I said, softening. “Okay, let’s just think about it for a second. Look, it’s late and we’re tired. What if we sleep on it and figure out what to do about this in the morning? Nothing’s going to happen tonight anyhow. It’s too late. Er, too early. So, let’s say we meet tomorrow at some point and go from there?”
    Jake smiled, showing two rows of perfectly straight, white teeth. How had I not noticed such gorgeous teeth before? He put his hands over his head and stretched, and I caught a glimpse of his toned abs. I nearly drooled. “Okay,” he said. “We can talk more tomorrow.”
    “Fair enough,” I replied, trying to sound casual and professional. But my stomach was already doing somersaults at the idea of seeing Jake again.

Chapter Ten
    A s I stepped outside into the late-night darkness, I was surprised at how quiet the camp was. A few voices and noises drifted to me in the air, but everything was largely silent. I could hear a chorus of crickets and frogs in the distance. I watched Jake’s shape disappear into the parking lot and wished he didn’t have to head home. I wished we could have kept talking all night.
    I took several big gulps of the fresh night air and tried to clear my head as I walked back to my tent. I almost couldn’t stand my luck. Not only did Jake not hate me, but he had information that could help my mom.
    I almost didn’t believe it. And then, for a moment, I wondered if I should believe it. What if this was a trap? The information Jake had given me was interesting, but still, it was a little spotty. What if it was all made up and what if Jake was getting revenge for the way I freaked out about the “I love you” thing? What if he was pretending to be my friend and help me, only to humiliate me somehow down the road? It wasn’t exactly a stretch of the imagination, considering the way Molly had turned on me.
    Even if that were the case, there was a part of me that wanted to just go on talking to him because it felt so easy. If things really are okay between us, I thought, I should tell him everything tomorrow .
    Everything starting with what went down just a few weeks ago—when Nat and I had spoken our last words.
    So far that summer it had just been the two of us—Molly wouldn’t hang out with Nat when I was around and vice versa—but Nat and I weren’t getting along anyway. Whenever we hung out, it would be fine for a little while, but then we’d always end up snapping at each other like irritated alligators. I tried convincing myself that everything was fine, but more and more I realized that instead of getting beyond our fight that day after biology, we’d been avoiding it. It was like when my mom sometimes shoved a pepper or an onion to the back of the fridge and then forgot about it until it began to rot, and the sticky smell oozed out every time we