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Adam has been helping with the family business for years. Shadowing his father and being groomed to one day take over the Harper empire.
And it’s never made him late before.
“Did you write that book report on Romeo and Juliet for Mrs. Stevenson’s class?” Evie asks.
“Of course,” I answer her, my eyes still glued to the window. “I wrote it a couple of weeks ago.”
“Two weeks ago?! Ew. You’re such a goody two shoes,” Evie teases.
“I have to be,” I sigh at her. “You get into enough trouble for the both of us.”
“And now you sound just like my mother,” Evie growls.
I giggle, watching her reflection in the window glare at me. “Is that supposed to be an insult?”
Evie twists her lips to the side, considering how she wants to respond.
She’s often at odds with her mother over her behavior, and it certainly doesn’t help that Lily has been comparing her to me more and more.
As if I’m some kind of gold standard Evie needs to live up to.
If only Lily knew the truth…
I’m not the ‘good girl’ everyone believes me to be and Evie isn’t the ‘bad girl’.
I’m simply a coward. Unlike Evie, I don’t have the guts to break the rules.
Not when there’s so much at stake.
Throwing her head back, Evie sighs up at the ceiling in defeat. “No.”
Proud of her for not insulting her mother, I return my attention to the empty driveway outside the window. Willing Adam to appear, if only for us to have more time together.
It feels like we barely get to see each other these days. There’s always something popping up to keep us apart. The paranoid part of my brain thinks this is all intentional. That our families have decided to do everything they can to keep us from seeing each other…
But why now? What’s suddenly changed?
Is it because I’ve turned fourteen? I’m no longer looked at as a little girl but I’m also not yet a woman.
I’m stuck somewhere in-between, waiting for some mystical magical moment of growth and awakening to happen. I believe I’ve done my best to demonstrate how responsible and trustworthy I am in the meantime.
And yet I feel like I’m under even more scrutiny.
Every little thing I do is seen by someone and reported. There are eyes everywhere now, and I must always be perfect. It’s almost as if it’s expected I act and think like an adult but I’m still not to be treated as one.
“Can I look at your report?” Evie says, still staring at the ceiling. “I haven’t started yet and don’t even know where to start.”
“Did you read the book?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
Evie makes a sound of disgust and throws her hands in the air. “I hate Shakespeare. Why can’t he just say what he means, like everyone else? Trying to figure it out gives me a headache.”
Honestly, I feel the same. That’s why I had Adam help me with my own report. Without him, I would have been completely lost in all the flowery words.
But to hear him speak them to me… to explain what they mean… left me utterly weak and breathless.
Especially when his eyes lit up with emotion as if he was Romeo himself expressing his love for me, his Juliet.
If the nanny wasn’t supervising us from her rocking chair in the corner, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth in disapproval, I know he would have grabbed me and kissed me in that moment.
