The Summer the AC Broke

The air conditioning gives out in the worst week of the summer, and the upstairs of the house becomes the only place worth being, because that is where the last working fan is. Becca ends up there with her stepbrother. Their mother is downstairs, close enough that the staircase announces her every time she uses it. The two of them are supposed to be sorting out the repair. Instead they spend days in the same hot rooms, finding reasons to stay, noticing where the other one is looking. Nothing they do can be explained if anyone asks, so they get good at explaining nothing. A hand on a shoulder while moving a box takes longer than it should. Neither of them says out loud what has changed. They keep up the ordinary talk at dinner and the ordinary distance in front of their mother, and upstairs they keep getting closer to something that cannot be walked back once it happens.