“Thank God she did. Where would I be without her?”
This gives me pause. Where would he be? Without us, certainly, but probably he wouldn’t be a
widower either. Would his life have been happier if he’d married some other girl, made some other
choice?
Daddy tips my chin. Firmly he says, “I would be nowhere without her, because I wouldn’t have my
girls.”
I call Peter and tell him Mrs. Duvall called my dad and he knows all about the video, but he’s talked
to Principal Lochlan and everything will be fine now. I expect him to be relieved, but he still sounds
down. “Now your dad probably hates me,” he says.
“He doesn’t,” I assure him.
“Do you think I should say something to him? I don’t know, like, apologize, man to man?”
I shudder. “Definitely not. My dad is super awkward.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Please stop worrying, Peter. It’s like I told you, my dad’s sorted it all out. Principal Lochlan will
make the announcement and people will leave us alone. Besides, there’s nothing for you to apologize
for. I was in it just as much as you were. You didn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to do.”
We hang up soon after, and even though I feel better about the video, I still feel unsettled about
Peter. I know he’s upset about not being able to protect me, but I also know that part of why he’s
upset is because his pride was injured, and that has nothing to do with me. Is a boy’s ego really such a
fragile, breakable thing? It must be so.