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“Juniper,” she breathed again, taking a stumbling step toward me, but she was stopped by my brother’s hand on her shoulder.
I tried to speak, but the words got stuck in my throat, coming out as more of a strangled rasp. The three of us regarded each other, my mom and Jourdan looking at me with barely concealed hope. But I was sure my face was a mask of pure horror.
“What are you doing here?” I was finally able to croak out.
“We wanted to see you,” my mother began, but Jourdan interrupted her.
“It’s been six years, and that’s the first thing you say to us? No ‘hi’, no ‘hello’?” His words were brusque, but I could see the hurt behind them that he was working so hard to hide.
“I’m not the one that showed up on your doorstep unannounced. So yeah, I think ‘what are you doing here’ is appropriate.” I fired back.
My heart was hammering wildly, so loudly, in fact, I was sure that they would be able to hear it despite the fact that they were standing at least five feet away.
“Don’t be rude,” Jourdan snapped, but my mother started shaking her head.
“No,” she said. “Not like this. I didn’t want our first meeting to be like this.”
She looked between my brother and me, her eyes pleading with us to not snap each other’s heads off. It all was too much to deal with.
“I don’t think you guys should be here,” I said, and I walked forward, trying to push past them, but they closed ranks.
“Juniper, please,” my mother pled, “we’ve come all this way.”
“In an incredibly nice car with every luxury you could think of, I’m sure.”
“Don’t be like this, Nell,” Jourdan stepped forward.
His use of that name, the one that I hadn’t told them and that they shouldn’t know, hit me like a blow to the stomach.
My eyes narrowed on him. “How did you know to call me that?”
Jourdan paused, and I could see the wheels of his mind turning as he tried to think of a way out of what he’d just done.
“Blake told you where I was, didn’t he?” My tone was high and demanding, but I couldn’t help the fact that I was shaking.
“Juniper…” My mother stepped forward again, out from under my brother’s hand, while reaching her own hand hesitantly toward me.
I didn’t respond, just looked at it with disdain before it fell back to her side.
“Maybe we could go inside and have this talk? I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea to have this conversation on the street.”
She threw a look around her, clutching her purse to her chest a little more tightly, the privilege all but dripping off of her.
I rolled my eyes, but I had to admit she was right. I nodded, took out my keys again, and walked forward to unlock the door.
“Come on,” I grunted as I held open the front door of my building.
As we walked through the small, dingy entryway, I saw my home for the first time how it must look to them. The black and white floor tile was chipped and peeling, and it looked more than in need of a wash.
The overhead light was still out, making the corners of the entryway look foreboding. The stairs creaked under our weight as we walked up them, and I noticed that the carpet on them was fraying too.
I threw a glance over my shoulder as we made our way up to my landing. I could see my mom chewing on the inside of her cheek while she did everything she could to touch as little of the building as possible. She wasn’t even using the handrail. But she hadn’t said anything about the state of it yet, so that was something, at least.
We made it to the third floor, and as I took my keys out of my pocket and placed them into the lock, the door across the hall snapped open. I fought the urge to groan. This would be the only time in the entire course of our friendship that I didn’t want to see Lex.
“Nelly Belly!” She yelled as she swung her door wide.
Her cheerful voice rang out through the hall, and I cringed, turning to look at her. When she spotted my family, her eyes widened with shock, and her expression paled.
