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“You kissed Connor Bray?” she demanded, dropping her duffle bag down on her bed beside me. “When?”
There was no point in dodging the truth. She’d figure it out eventually. “Last night.”
Jozie nudged me over so she could sit cross-legged beside me. If it weren’t for the old quilt on her bed and not her usual comforter set, it would’ve been exactly like old times. “Didn’t I tell you to stay away from him?”
I told her about how Connor had asked me to tutor him, and how initially I’d said no, but with a little persuading—and a little lying to a teacher—he’d convinced me to help him. I told her about the relationship advice and about Alex. I had to start at the beginning, and once the words started, I couldn’t stop. I expected her to cut me off, because the Jozie I knew had a terrible time listening without interjecting comment after comment, but she just sat, rapt, the entire time. Eyes wide, lips parted, growing more and more…alarmed?
“You kissed him,” she repeated, blinking, “and he kissed youback?”
“Y-Yeah, I think so.” I thought about the way he pressed my body against the car, fingers knotting around mine. “Yeah, he did.”
“So he likes you?”
I bit down on my lower lip. “I think so.”
Jozie tapped her nimble fingers against her chin, mind running a mile a minute judging by the fluttering of her gaze, which didn’t land on one thing for more than a moment. “So, what are you going to do about it?”
“It doesn’t change anything. Jade and him are going to continue their little charade to win homecoming.”
My sister didn’t like the answer, features twisting. “Maisie.”
“You were the one that told me to stay out of the drama. This is me keeping my nose clean.”
“Sometimes things are worth fighting for, you know.”
It was a conversation I couldn’t go into, not now. Not when everything was so fresh. So, instead, I squinted at her. “You know, you owe me an explanation.”
“For what?”
“For blowing me off.” I reached out and pinched her bony knee. “It was like you forgot I existed when you went off to college.”
Jozie fell back onto the bed with a sigh, squishing a pillow underneath her head. “College, Maisie. It’s harder than I thought it’d be. Which sounds dumb, right? But…can I tell you a secret?”
I laid down beside her, shoving my shoulder against hers. “Always.”
“I was afraid I made the wrong choice.”
Instead of whipping my head toward her in disbelief—becausewow—I grabbed ahold of her hand and gave it a squeeze.
“I thought it would be amazing, focusing on art. But I’ve never forced myself to be creative for a class, you know? So it was…a lot.”
“So you were dodging my calls because you were having an existential crisis?”
Jozie snorted, a loud, pig-like sound that I hadn’t heard in months. It caused me to laugh, affection wrapping its arms around my chest and giving it a squeeze. “I have to break it to Mom and Dad, but I dropped a class. Computer animation—which, thinking about it, might’ve been too ambitious for me anyway. My advisor suggested it to ease myself into everything. I’ll have more free time soon to call you.”
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling, only a little. It sucked that she had to drop a class, but the selfishness in me won out. “I miss you not being here. I miss having you to talk to when I can’t sleep.”
“How about this?” Jozie rolled on her side, elbow digging into my covers. She narrowed her blue-eyeshadowed eyelids. “When you can’t sleep, text me. I’ll make sure to leave my ringer on. And you promise to actually reply to my good morning texts, yeah?”
“Deal.” I leaned my head against her shoulder, inhaling her strawberry-scented perfume. “Can you explain the psychology of art to me?”
“You mean art theory?” I felt her tilt her head, attempting to look at me, but I snuggled closer.
“Please? I want to hear.”
It wasn’t necessarily the psychology behind art, or art theory or whatever, that I wanted to hear, but more just her voice. Her slightly raspy, deep voice that always made me feel better, no matter the situation. It’d been far, far too long since I got to be with her like this, and I wanted to soak up as much of it as I could. Even if we were talking about art and even if it went over my head, I needed this.
If I thought the crowd was highly invested in the football game last Friday night, they were ten thousand times more energetic for homecoming.
