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“It's okay. I tried to keep it on the downlow as much as possible,” he said. “Didn't want everyone in our business. You know how my dad was about his privacy.”
From the little I knew; his dad had been a very private man. I honestly couldn't remember much about him, except that he had Shane's brown eyes and chiseled features. He'd been the strong, silent type and hardly ever spoke the few times I was over at his house to see Shane. It seemed to stand to reason, based on what I knew that he'd want everything about him to be kept pretty private – including his death.
“How are you, Piper?” he asked, his face softening back up again. “I haven't seen you since I left for California.”
I ran a hand through my jet-black hair, which fell loose and straight over my shoulders. Biting my lip, I tried to think of some way I could explain my life in a way that didn't make it sound entirely miserable.
“Good,” I settled on. “I mean, except when I have to crack down on would-be shoplifters. That takes a little fun out of the day, to be honest.”
Nolan groaned. “Can we go now?”
“Thank you for not calling the police. I appreciate it, Piper,” Shane said, then stared daggers through Nolan. “This could have been really bad, Nolan. You know that.”
“Sorry, I didn't expect to get caught,” he said.
“That’s not the point. Wrong is wrong whether you get caught or not. You're almost eighteen,” I said. “Do you know what will happen to you when you legally become an adult?”
Nolan shrugged. “But I'm not eighteen now, so why does it matter?”
“Because it does,” Shane said, his voice tightening and his jaw clenching as he spoke through suddenly gritted teeth. “We have a lot at stake here, kid. Do you really want to go back into the system until you're eighteen?”
Nolan shook his head, but he was no longer looking at Shane. I just stood there, an awkward bystander, with my arms crossed over my chest. A customer came in, grabbed a couple of things and then walked to the counter. I rang them up, all the while listening to Shane scolding his baby brother.
I heard bits and pieces – about CPS, about putting their sister Emily at risk, all for a few bags of potato chips.
Then my heart broke when I heard Nolan say, “I was hungry, okay? So was Emily,” he said, his voice so painfully small. “There was no food in the house and you were nowhere to be found, so I had to improvise.”
My breath caught in my throat, and it took way too long to count out the cash the customer had handed to me. Were they really that bad off? I gave the customer his change and tried to look busy, not wanting to intrude on their talk, but it was hard not to overhear it, especially as both of their voices started to rise.
“I'm sorry, Piper,” Shane said at last, grabbing old of Nolan's arm and leading him away. “I wish we could have gotten together again under better circumstances, but I have to get going.”
“No, it's fine,” I said, brushing him off. “I'm just sorry again to hear about your parents.”
“Thanks,” he muttered, leading his brother out of the store.
I let out a breath. I looked at the clock and was grateful that my shift was over in five minutes, because the butterflies in my stomach were getting restless.
“Freedom, at last,” Marcy spoke up as she walked over to the time clock. “Well, for you, I mean.”
I laughed, feeling like I could collapse. It had been a long day, as most days were, and I was ready to go home and get some sleep. That was, if my daughter would let me.
CHAPTER TWO
SHANE
Music blared in the hallway as we approached our apartment, making me groan inwardly. I opened the door a
nd came face-to-face with my baby sister sitting on some douchebag's lap, their mouths pressed to each other, devouring one other like they were starving to death. Obviously, neither one of them had heard us come in – whether it was because of the music, or the wet, sloppy sound of their kissing – so I walked over to my sister's iPod and hit the stop button. The silence was a nice reprieve from the EDM crap that had filled the room moments before, though the wet, smacking sound continued on for a second.
“Hey!” Emily shouted, finally detaching herself from the douchebag's face, her eyes boring holes through me. “We were listening to that.”
“Oh yeah? Looked like you were too busy eating each other's faces off to be listening to much of anything else,” I said.
Even as I spoke those words, I hated how it sounded. Emily peeled herself off her the guy, not even bothering to introduce him. I'd never seen him before in my life, which meant she must have broken things off with whoever she'd been dating the week before. This guy was scrawny with dyed black hair and pale skin. He looked like one of the emo kids I remember from my youth. Was emo really coming back in style? I didn't want to believe I was that old yet.
The kid waved at me. “Hey, I'm Jake.”
Emily took his hand and pulled him toward her room, grabbing her iPad on the way out.
