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My chest expands as I inhale deeply. “I was thinking about Ronald,” I admit on a sigh.
Her large brown eyes continue to scrutinize, but she puckers her lips. “Still no word?”
“Nope. It’s kind of weird. Why would he vanish like an asshole? My sister is tough to love, and I get it. Still… why not cut ties with both of us?”
“Maybe he wants something from you.” She raises her brow.
“Gross.”
“Gross, yes, but maybe he thinks you’re like your sister. Men can be dicks sometimes, Pay. Maybe he’s going to pop back up and be like, I paid your bills…”
“No way. It has to be something else.”
“Like what?” She lifts her closed pen to her mouth and starts to tap her lip. “I got it! Maybe he did something awful to Erin, and paying your bills is his penance.”
“That makes no sense. Because then he would be paying her bills.”
“True… Okay, what if she did something awful, and he feels guilty for leaving you in the lurch?”
“But wouldn’t he call to tell me that himself? It’s been years and still, no contact.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“He’s on Mars.” She shrugs.
“That makes the most sense, to be honest. Or he’s in the CIA, and we were his cover story.”
We both laugh at that.
“How’s your sis?”
Tilting my head, I give her a look that says, are you kidding me?
“A mess, as always.” I roll my eyes.
“She drinking?”
I shake my head.
“Using?”
Again, I say no, but then I shrug. “Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t go visit her that often.”
“I can understand that. Even without seeing her, she calls all the time.”
“Yeah, plus, what’s the point of asking her? She doesn’t answer any of my questions. And I ask a lot. She isn’t telling me something. Something huge. I know it. And because of that, I just can’t bring myself to hear her lie to me. For years, before Ronnie, I dealt with this behavior. He made everything better. But she’s regressing. She’s as flighty as before, and I can’t deal. Plus, the guy she’s dating right now . . .” I shiver.
He gives me the creeps.
The way he looks at me like I’m a piece of meat. Which in and of itself is not okay, but seeing as he’s dating my sister, it makes him a real lowlife.
Heather goes quiet as the door swings open. Our professor steps out and crosses the front of the room to the podium. Her heels click on the wood floors as the room goes quiet.
She demands respect, and we give it.
When she begins the lesson, I lean forward to make sure I don’t miss a word.
I’m so engrossed in the lecture that I don’t notice Heather whispering to me, or that the teacher has stopped speaking and every eye in the classroom is on me.
