AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You look like you’ve just rolled out of bed,” Celine remarks.
I wince and immediately reach up to pat down my hair. When my fingers get caught in the knots at the back of my head, I pull off my ponytail and start from scratch.
“That would be because I did just roll out of bed,” I admit.
Celine glances at the elegant blush wristwatch on her hand. “It’s 10:30, Tay.”
“Yes, yes, spare me the lecture. I pulled a double shift at the restaurant last night, and then I headed straight to the library for a study session that ended at two in the morning. Slept right through my alarm.”
Celine purses up her lips. “I walked by your new apartment building yesterday.”
I cringe inwardly. I can already tell where this is headed. “Oh?”
“You couldn’t find a better place?”
“It wasn’t like I had a lot of time to look for a place, and I couldn’t stay on Tiffany’s couch forever. It’s just temporary anyway. Until I save up enough to afford something a little better.”
“That explains the double shift.”
I curse myself internally for sleeping through that stupid alarm. I wanted to show up confident and breezy, looking like a competent adult for once in my life. Instead, I’d thrown on the clothes I’d been wearing the night before in my haste to get out the door. My mouth still tastes like sleep scum—gross, I know.
The waitress appears with our drinks and reads out the specials. My stomach roils when she mentions the crab benedict with hollandaise sauce. It’s a splurge for me, considering the one plate will run me twenty-two dollars, but I haven’t eaten since yesterday morning. They could serve me Flounder fromLittle Mermaidand I’d gorge myself on that cute little fella.
“You know, there’s a perfectly decent spare room at home,” Celine points out when the waitress walks away. “And it’s rent-free.”
I sigh. “Can we not, Cee? I haven’t even eaten yet.”
“You’re being stubborn.”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. In case you missed it in the twenty years I’ve been your sister, I am stubborn.” I sip my iced tea and give her a cheeky grin.
Celine shakes her head. She’s frustrated, of course, but I know her well enough to see how she’s biting down a wry smile. It’s how we are—she does the right thing all the time, I do the wrong thing all the time, and we both look at the other one like,What were you thinking?
It’s funny—we’re only separated by two years, but you wouldn’t believe it if you really looked at us. She’s an “old soul,” as they say, which I always used to mentally substitute for “boringly responsible.” Less so now, though. I’m starting to admire her willingness to simply take what life gives her and not ask for more. Kinda jealous of it, really.
Even now, she’s sitting across from me in luxe black leggings and a white linen button-down just loose enough to be chic and stylish. When I wear oversized clothes, I look like I ransacked Dad’s closet.
“Things didn’t go great when you left,” she says.
I groan and bury my face in my hands.As if I needed that reminder.
“Celine,” I protest, “for the length of one breakfast, if nothing else, I’m begging you to—”
“Dad was just hurt that you left in the middle of the night.”
“I left a note!”
“You should have stayed and spoken with him. Face to face.”
I sigh and look up at her through my parted fingers. “We don’t communicate well. You know that. I try to talk to him, but he just ends up yelling at me.” She snorts quietly into her lemonade, and I raise my eyebrows. “Something you’d like to share with the class?”
She shrugs. “Well, it’s just that he says the same thing about you.”
I roll my eyes. “Of course he does.”
“Maybe it’s fair to say that you’re both at fault here?” she suggests gently.
I lean back in my chair and cross my arms over my chest. We’re treading on old, familiar territory here. Reading back lines we’ve read a million times before.
