AllFreeNovel
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“You know you can’t lie to me.” She glances down at my knuckles before turning to face the front of the car. “Four years, and you still think you can suddenly have an acting career.”
“Way to kill my dreams, sis,” I mutter, turning to face the convenience store. “We should get going. We’ll be late picking up Leon.”
The car remains stationary, and I can practically feel Ella’s stern gaze boring into the back of my skull. “We’re already late. What’s a few more minutes? What happened?”
“Nothing,” I sigh and look back at Ella. Once again, she’s not buying it.
“Really, we need to get Leon before he gets mad. I don’t want to hear him whine the entire way home.”
“He’ll just flirt with the football players.”
“Probably get yelled at again for distracting them.” I let out a chuckle, which causes Ella to grin at me.
Without saying a word, she backs out of the gas station, and we are back on our way to pick up our brother.
“Don’t think I’ve let this go. I just needed you to actually smile before we left.”
I roll my eyes, not from annoyance but from the amount of cheesiness that just came from her mouth. Hopefully, Leon is just flirting the day away, so he won’t complain when we actually pick him up. My little brother is a shameless flirt to the point that I’m not even sure he means to.
A few minutes later, we are driving into the school parking lot. I hated going to school here. In the system, I was Sally Reed, but that was also at the beginning of my transition, so everyone assumed I was a boy with a girl’s name.
“You want to get out and look for Leon while I find somewhere to park?” I blink a few times, dragging my eyes to Ella. She continues, “He’s not out front, which means he’s by the practice field.”
Now would be the time to open the door and find my brother. That isn’t happening, though. I just stare at the institution that filled my nightmares for four years. Even the teachers dead-named me behind my back.
“Sally, we talked about this,” Ella says, giving me the same face she would give me every morning while we sat in her car before school. “Everyone that bullied you is off on some stupid, rich vacation.”
I let out a forced laugh.
“Sally—”
Before she can start again, I’m out the door and walking through the courtyard. The practice field is behind the main building. Everywhere just reminds me of the years spent not wanting to be here.
The school didn’t want to waste money on making different fields for each sport, so they had to share. Though, football was probably the most important sport here. Everyone worships the ground the players walk on.
My eyes rake across the field of players, the sound of pads crashing together, the coach yelling out that he’d never seen this many pussies play football. I’m so glad I never played football, even before the transition. I was so small, but that didn’t stop my sperm donor from trying to get me to ‘man up.’
Taking my attention away from the field, my eyes land on Leon, sitting on a set of bleachers. He isn’t facing me, so when I sit down, his head snaps over in surprise. His wavy, chesnut-brown hair looks disheveled like he’s been messing with it. The strands, however, don’t cover his different-colored eyes. One is dark blue, while the other is dark brown. I remember when I first met Leon. He’s the youngest of the adopted Reed siblings, but he’s always had the most presence. Instantly, he started babbling at me about his day and how excited he was to meet me. Now, those eyes are red and puffy.
“Hey,” he whispers before turning back to the field. My eyes follow him and fall on one boy playing on the field. “Chase has a new boyfriend.”
“Ahh.” Damn it, Sally, think of something else to say. But the boy he’s looking at isn’t Chase. His cheating ex-boyfriend goes to a different school.
“That’s Hugo, his best friend.” He stares intently before a few more tears come down his face.
I want to reach out and hug him. I should hug him. He’s my little brother and needs comfort, but I’m not a good big sister, so I sit there watching him.
“I hooked up with him.” He sniffles before wiping his face. “I’m so fucking stupid.”
“No, you’re not,” I deny it, but he shakes his head.
“I am.”
“Having a rebound isn’t a bad thing,” I continue, finally taking one of his hands into my own.
“It’s not the rebound, Sally.” Leon closes his eyes, letting out a sigh. “It’s the fact that I did it just to get back at Chase.”
“I don’t see the issue?—”
