Read Online The Long Ride by Bonnie Bryant - Free Book Online Page A

training course yet!” Polly said.
    Lisa hurried Stevie out of the shop before she could ask Polly what she meant. Stevie did need the job, and Lisa didn’t want her to quit before she even started. Moreover, she was now crunched for time. They had to get going. She settled into the passenger seat of Stevie’s car.
    â€œWhere to?” Stevie asked. “Your place or miner?”
    â€œMine,” Lisa told her. “I’ve got to do some organizing for my trip, and life is easier if I do that kind of thing when Mom isn’t around. Although it’s been more than a year since Dad got remarried, Mom still resents it and the fact that he moved across the country. She calls Dad’s new wife ‘that woman,’ and she won’t even mention the baby. I guess I can understand. It wouldn’t make me happy if I were her, but it sure has made him happy.”
    â€œIt doesn’t make me or Carole or Alex happy, either,” Stevie said, just to remind Lisa that her mother wasn’t the only one who would miss her that summer.
    â€œIt changes everything. I know that,” Lisa said. “Change can be great, but sometimes it’s just too much. When my parents split up and Dad moved to California, I felt like I was being cut in half—half of me loved Mom and the other half loved Dad, and the half that loved Mom hated Dad and the half that loved Dad hated Mom. It’s tough having all that love and hate all mixed up inside. I mean … I still wish it hadn’t happened, but the fact is that there was so much tension in our house all the time that life is a lot easier with them apart from one another. The real trouble is that Mom is miserable and Dad is deliriously happy. When I spend time with Mom, I try to make her feel better, and when I spend time with Dad, I’m relieved that I don’t have to cope with that, and then I feel guilty that I’m relieved. Isn’t that great? No matter what I do, it hurts. I feel like I’m caught in the middle. I know that how I’m feeling isn’t particularly rational. I mean, none of this is my fault. But it still hurts. But as time goes by, I feel it a little bit less and hurt a little bit less. I think it’s the same for Mom and Dad, too. Mom is getting better, slowly. Dad is admitting that what he did was hurtful—even if it wasn’t wrong for him. And we’re all going on with our lives.”
    Stevie was glad she was behind the wheel and could pretend she was concentrating on the road in front of her. This was the first time in more than two years that Lisa had talked so much about her parents and how their divorce had affected her. Both Stevie and Carole had known that all these things were going on in Lisa’s mind and heart because they were best friends, but Lisa had never shown much inclination to talk about them. Now she was talking, and Stevie’s sole job was to listen.
    â€œSo now I’m going off to my dad’s. It’ll be more relaxed than here—if you don’t count looking after Lily. She’s the cutest thing. I never thought I’d have a baby sister, and I certainly never thought it would happen when I was in high school—in a way, that’s an awful thought—but it’s happened and she’s adorable and I love her and I’m glad to spend time with her and I’m glad to be with my dad when he’s so obviously happy to have me and Evelyn and Lily there with him. It’s like there’s enough air out there to breathe, and there isn’t here, certainly not at my house, anyway. Do you think the air in California is really different?”
    â€œI’ve never been there,” Stevie said. “I guess the weather’s better.”
    â€œI don’t think that’s it,” said Lisa.
    â€œProbably not,” Stevie agreed. She pulled into Lisa’s driveway and stopped the car smoothly. She didn’t know what to