AllFreeNovel
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“Oh, don’t get me wrong, you are absolutely a guest. At least as far as I am concerned. But Ron’s got some fucked up idea that you are family, that you’re his daughter now. And that makes you my sister, so we should be happy to share our space.”
“You are not my brother,” I mutter, giving up and setting the bottles on the counter, where I start organizing them.
“No arguments here.” I look up at him in surprise, startled by the tone of his voice. Not sure what exactly it means. But his face is pretty devoid of emotion, so I can’t get a read on it, anyway. He’s probably upset that he has to share, just like I am.
“Do you have a side?”
“In bed?”
My cheeks heat, but I make myself motion at the vanity. “Do you have a preference of what sink you use?”
He jerks his chin at the sink he’d spit into. “You can have that one.”
I frown. But don’t argue. It’s just a few months, just until the end of summer, maybe even less if I can get permission to move into the dorms early. I’ve been working on that with the admissions office and student housing. Sometimes they let students move at the beginning of August.
God, I hope I can do that.
Finn watches me as I arrange my products on the counter, and then pull open the closest drawer to drop more things into it. But it’s full. Frowning, I look at the products. They’re all things I use. Or Iusedbefore we fled our apartment and have been living out of a single bag for months.
I open another drawer and find it too has stuff in it, a blow dryer, my curling wand, a flatiron.
I don’t know if he senses my confusion or if he just likes to hear himself talk, but Finn explains, “your mom brought your shit.”
I nod slowly. “Yeah, I can see that. How… How long ago did she do that?”
He doesn’t answer right away, waits until I raise my eyes to his. “A few months.”
“Right after Quarantine ended.” It’s not a question. It’s a statement of fact. My father had been dead only days at that point and she’d packed up our whole life and moved it here. I’m surprised she hadn’t done the same to me. That she hadn’t just put me in a box labeled Sabine’s room and shipped me here. “I didn’t know.”
I guess that explains why my plants are still alive, though not necessarily healthy. Someone has been watering them, infrequently sure, but enough to keep them alive.
My fingers go to the bracelets on my wrists, running over the beads there. God, I’m so uncomfortable here. So freaking out of place, and my mom she just wants to wedge me into this space that feels too tight.
I swallow and turn from Finn, heading toward my bedroom, or rather the bedroom that has in mine while I’m here.
“Hey, jelly?”
I pause at the doorway, but don’t look at him. “Welcome home.”
