AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I push up and run over to Mommy. Music’s playing from her little radio, and she’s reading a book with a half-naked man on the front who looks like Tarzan.
“Hey, sweet boy,” she says, ruffling my hair.
“Hi,” I whisper.
“What did those two rope you into now?”
I shrug, and she laughs. I like her laugh. It’s pretty.
“Now we need to find Jeremy a wife!” Izzy says, racing over to us.
I make a face, shaking my head.
“But JJ,” she says, grabbing my hands, making me jump around with her in a circle. Waylon’s laying in the grass still, like a starfish, staring up at the sky. “We have to get married at the same time, so we can still live together.”
Mom laughs at that.
And Izzy’s spinning me, and spinning me, and spinning me…
AGE 14, AUGUST
“This is so lame,” Waylon says, scowling at the empty Coke bottle laid out on the rug, currently pointing between me and the girl on my right.
Her name is Sarah. And on her left, there’s Dana. And on my left, between me and Waylon, is Kasey. Three of Izzy’s friends—girl friends—something our parents have insisted on Izzy making more time for. They’re sleeping over tonight. An end of summer slumber party before we all start high school next week. Me included.
So long homeschooling, hello Hell.
And to think it was my idea…
One I’m already beginning to regret if it’s things like this I’ll be subject to.
“It’ll be fun,” Kasey says, her cheeks turning pink. Waylon side-eyes her and quickly looks down, his own face heating.
I quickly divert my gaze, focusing on a loose thread curling up from my jeans.
Izzy and Dana are talking logistics and rules and whatnot, their voices mingling with the Creed song playing from the stereo.
According to Izzy, Dana’s the only one she genuinely likes—apparently she plays violin, so I’m not surprised they’ve bonded over music.
I still remember the fight I overheard a couple weeks ago. Izzy was all angry because our parents said they were worried she didn’t have any other friends outside of Waylon, who’s basically our brother, and Mason, her boyfriend for almost two years now.
Yeah, that’s still a thing. So much for hoping they’d get bored of it after a couple weeks.
I remember Mom trying to reason with her. “Your whole world can’t revolve around?—”
And my sister all but screamed before she could even get the words out, “Why not?”
I still wonder if Mom was going to say piano or the boys. Could go either way. Could be both.
Probably both.
“The girls at school only care about makeup and being popular, and I don’t care about that.”
“How do you know if you don’t try?” Mom had pressed gently.
Izzy sniffed and replied, “Why do you want me to be someone I’m not?”
At that my dad had stepped in. “Honey, it’s not that. We just want you to be open to new experiences and people. You’re a teenager. You don’t have to have your whole life figured out this young.”
