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“You wanna ditch school and spend the day together tomorrow watching movies?”
Her big blue eyes gleam like diamonds, reminding me of carnival rides and Christmas mornings. My fingers comb her hair, a habit I’ve yet to break from childhood, like her dad rather than her twin. She’s so little next to me. I’d give anything to protect her from all the wrongs in the world.
“Yes, please.” She smiles, even though her bottom lip is still quivering.
“Great! Let’s get you unpacked and then take Blue Lightning to the store to get movie goodies.”
She giggles. “Will you stop referring to your car as a person?”
“She’s the most beautiful creature on this planet,” I state, thinking about Marisol, not my car. My sister’s a hawk. I’ve never outright lied to her, but even the little fibs she’s rooted out easily. This’ll be a challenge.
“Someday you’ll find a real girl, not a car, and not one of your nasties, either.” She plops down on the bed and sighs, not meeting my eyes, when she asks, “Will you get my stuff from downstairs?”
“Of course. I’ll be right back.”
I hop down the stairs, swoop Jasmine’s bag up, and head back to my room. The bag lands with a thump on the floor.
“Jeez, Jaz. What do you have in that thing?”
“Gran took me shopping. I told her my clothes got ruined in the washer. She insisted.” Jasmine loathes shopping as much as I hate laundry.
“That’s good. Separate your clean from your dirty and let’s go get some goodies.”
She gets to work getting her dirties together, which benefits me since it looks like she’s packed a bunch of my clothes. All her new ones are still clean. Once she’s finished, she piles all her things on top of my dresser.
“I’ll take them to my room later, okay?” She glances down, not wanting to look at me.
“That’s fine.”
“And I’ll help with the laundry since I wore your clothes, too.” Her lips quirk up in a smile after seeing the scathing look I sent my laundry basket.
“No worries. I’ll take care of it.” See? I’d do anything for my sister, including laundry.
~~~~~
Two bags of junk food and ten movies cued to our lineup later?yes ten?we’re set to go. When we do a movie marathon, we do it right. We’re watching all night tonight and tomorrow. We usually include Marisol and Alex in these, but this one’s special. This is for us.
Watching Jasmine flutter around, getting everything set the way we like it, makes me realize that I’m going to give my dad an ultimatum the next time I see him. He better take action now or I’ll be taking Jasmine and moving out. I’ll tell our Gran everything. She’ll give us money to live somewhere else. I’ve been doing this Jasmine’s way for too long and I’m about to take control of the situation. Margret’s behavior will no longer be tolerated, which is something I should have taken control of a long time ago.
“Jace?”
Jasmine’s voice catches my attention. “What?”
“I’ve been talking to you for like five minutes. What’s going on?” Her brows scrunch down in concern.
I can’t fathom where to start. My sister’s being verbally and emotionally abused, while my dad stands by, waiting for things to change, hoping for some transformation into what we once had. This situation’s been building since we were children. Nothing is ever going to change. On top of that, I have to tell her I’m now madly in love with her best friend. A best friend that I spilled all her secrets to. Jasmine doesn’t need all this shit right now, so instead of talking about it, I sigh. “Nothing. Which movie do you want to watch first?”
“We need to relax, so I picked Alien first. There’s nothing like blasting neck wrapping, slimy ass creatures to calm you down.” She hits play, then turns back to confirm, “we’re watching the entire series.”
“What, the entire series tonight? What about the others?”
“We’re saving them for tomorrow. It’s only eight, Jace. Don’t punk out on me. We can do this.”
I shake my head, laughing, and throwing my hands up in surrender. “All right! Let’s do this!” I plop down on my side of the couch and dig into the candy Jasmine’s set out for us to feast on.
“I’m going to warn you once, and only once.” She looks at me seriously. “If you excuse yourself one time to go to the bathroom while Ripley is on, I’ll know what you’re doing in there.”
Laughter bursts from my lips. “Jaz! What the fuck! That was one time, and I was like twelve. What do you expect? Don’t hold that shit over my head forever. And I swear to God, if you tell anyone, I will slap the shit out of you.”
