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Rory
“SoisColegoingto have to start calling you queen instead of Princess now?” Finn jokes from the back seat on our way home from the hospital.
“Don’t start,” I warn.
Finn has the audacity to look offended when I glare at him over my shoulder.
He runs a hand across his chest. “What? It’s not every day I can say I’m in the hands of royalty ‘oh queen of Hardin,’” he mocks.
“Shut up,” I scold, shoving at hisgoodshoulder.
“Ouch! Watch it, lil sis. We can’t damage the other arm too or my shot at going prodefinitelyslims to like half,” he snorts so sure of his abilities.
I roll my eyes, turning back forward. He’s overly confident as usual.
Cole hasn’t said a lot the whole drive but that’s not saying much. He’s pacified in the comfort of letting Finn and me banter.
No one has to wait long before Finn starts spouting more things off about how well his surgery went. Even going so far as to nickname his “new arm” the “bionic arm.”
He claims the scar and the metal screws will give him an edge. Make him a legal, badass robot on the basketball court come next season.
College. That’s where we’ll all be after the summer.
I can’t believe it.
A small zing of excitement shoots through me. We’d all gotten in. Cole was the last, getting his acceptance letter right before we’d gone to pick Finn up.
Another thing Finn can’t stop raving about. I’m pretty sure he’s already planned out a year’s worth of parties in his head.
Good luck trying to squeeze those in between practices and games though. College is a whole new league compared to high school, but I’m ready.
Unlike when I’d found out my mother died, I’m okay with this change. Excited for the first time about what the future holds.
I was raised to be a sheep but turned into a hellhound instead.
Iceman’s lips press into the shell of my ear as soon as we get inside. “Hang back a second,” he rasps. Goose bumps break out across the back of my neck but deepen when I feel his smile.
He’s in a good mood today.
“We’ll catch up in a sec,” he hollers, and Finn dismisses us with a wave. He slurs, mentioning something about grabbing a bite of real food, over subpar cuisine.
Apparently, the stuff served at hospitals didn’t meet his standards or fill his expectations.
“What is it?” I ask, a little too breathy.
Spinning. I’m being spun. Our fronts are smashed together before I have time to react. Our hearts beat, reverberating off the other.
I peer up at him with a smile, scraping my fingernails through the hairs at the base of his scalp.
“What’s up, Iceman?”
He groans, “I love when you call me that.”
I lovehim. That’s all.
“You know, I think Finn might’ve been onto something earlier,” he reasons, twirling a strand of my hair around his thumb. “Maybe it’s time I update your name.”
