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Gabe starts to walk across the room but then pauses, turning toward Foster and Blondie. “Did you guys introduce yourselves yet?” When they shake their heads, seeming bored, he sighs. “Skylin, this is my son Easton”—he gestures at Blondie who has the audacity to wink at me, then motions to Foster—“and this is Foster.”
So, these are the non-identical twins who are my age and who are supposed to show me around my new school. Lovely.
I force a smile. “My name’s Sky. No one really calls me Skylin, except for my mom, and only when she’s really pissed off.”
Gabe smiles at that, Foster continues to look irritated, and Easton, well, he looks amused, but I have a feeling that might not be a good thing.
“Okay, Sky it is,” Gabe interrupts the silence, seeming a bit uneasy as he looks at me. “Why don’t you show me everything that needs to go with you, and then what needs to go in storage. That way, we can load up the storage stuff last so we won’t have to move all your stuff around.
Nodding, I turn for my parents’ bedroom, figuring that’s the best place to start. As I pass by Nina, I hand her the whiskey bottle and tell Gage and her to wait a minute before taking off.
After I get done showing Gabe what goes where, he suggests the strangest thing.
“Why don’t you go have lunch with your friends and say goodbye,” he says. “Foster, Easton, and I can handle getting everything packed and cleaned up.”
I peer around the messy house crammed with furniture. “Are you sure? There’s a lot of stuff.”
He pats me on the shoulder. “With everything you’re going through right now, you deserve to say a proper goodbye to your friends.”
I nod gratefully, but a drop of uneasiness stirs inside of me.
He acts as though I’m saying goodbye forever, as if he knows my parents are never coming back. But even if my parents don’t return—and that’s a huge if—I’ll eventually come back to Nina and Gage. My time with the Everettsons is only temporary. I know this, so why doesn’t Gabe not seem to?
Chapter 5
Before I leave the house with Nina and Gage to grab a bite to eat, I change out of my smelly clothes, wash my face, comb my hair, and put on the necklace I almost always wear. It was a gift from my mom on my fifth birthday. She told me her sister had once given it to her.
The teardrop-shaped pendant is made out of steel and is supposed to bring the wearer good luck. But, considering how unlucky I’ve been, I don’t buy into the story.
After I get cleaned up, I head out. Easton makes a point to smirk at me again, and Foster simply ignores me.
“Well, they’re an … interesting family,” Gage comments from the back seat of Nina’s car as we drive toward the center of town.
“Interesting?” Nina glances at him in the rearview mirror. “They’re a bunch of assholes.”
“Gabe doesn’t seem too bad,” I attempt to find the silver lining in all this.
Maybe the rest of the family will be like Gabe? I sure hope so, or else my time with the Everettsons is going to be all rain clouds, fires, and sporadic lightning zaps.
“Yeah, except for the fact that he looked upset you were holding a bottle of whiskey,” Nina reminds me as she pulls into the parking lot of the local burger joint.
“So, he’s a normal parent then,” Gage chimes in with a shrug. “That might not be that bad.”
“Have you ever had a normal parent?” Nina questions, knowing very well he hasn’t. “Because my ex-stepfather was like that—all about rules and normalcy—and it sucked ass.” She steers into an empty parking space then unbuckles her seatbelt. “I was so glad when my mom divorced him and things went back to normal.”
“And by normal, she means she got to return to her evil vixen ways of running wild, drinking, and doing drugs.” Gage shares a teasing smile with me as he slides across the seat to get out.
Laughing, I climb out of the car and meet Nina and Gage around back.
“I still can’t believe you’re going to be living with the guy you’ve been crushing on for the last couple months,” Nina says as we head inside.
“Was crushing on,” I clarify, splashing through puddles. “The crush ended the moment he opened his mouth.”
“Well, asshole or not, at least you’ll have something pretty to look at every day,” Nina muses. “That Easton guy was pretty hot, too.”
“They’re twins,” I tell her as I pull open the door.
She grins as she steps inside. “Even better.”
