AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t especially like it,” I tell her.
“Have you told her?” She runs her fingers over the length of my arm, over and over. Why is that so comforting too? Coco hasn’t been a mother that long, but she’s got the job down.
“No. Why ruin our friendship when she doesn’t feel the same way?”
“But what if she does?”
“She literally told her grandmother this morning that it wasn’t like that between us.”
Coco’s front teeth make an appearance once more, clamping down on her bottom lip until I’m afraid they’ll produce blood.
“Coco,” Alice calls from the other room. “Uncle Owen doesn’t have any brown. I can’t draw Rosey without brown!”
“Coming, sweetie.”
My sister stands, her hand still in mine.
“Coco?” I say. It’s a question, one that Coco reads right the first time.
“She reverts back and forth. I’m usuallyMamathese days.”
“I like that she’s calling you mom,” I tell her.
“Me too,” she says, her eyes filling with unshed tears. “This conversation isn’t over, okay?”
I nod, my head starting to pound again.
When Miles walks in, brushes and canvas in hand, I think I might be saved. Maybe I’ll get out of my Annie talk with Coco after all.
8
Owen
“H
ow long have you known?” Coco says to Miles, a brush in her hand. He’s teaching us both to dry paint. Err—he’s teaching Coco. I’m listening, watching, and asking questions to get them off the Annie topic.
My sister won’t be distracted, though. She had our mother pick up Alice, and she is all business now.
“Oh, man. Um. Always. Since before they graduated high school.” Miles looks at me as if I will give him confirmation of how long he’s known that I’ve been crushing on my best friend. Although—crushing isn’t an accurate term. It’s one that Miles used once. I let him use it. Because it sounds so much better than what this is—strange, crazy, stupid longing for someone who looks at me as nothing more than one of her many friends.
Okay, that isn’t true either. Annie and I arebestfriends. We tell each other things we don’t tell other friends. We spend time together that we don’t spend with other friends.
Yep, when I choose torture, I go all in.
“Always? And no one told me?” Coco says, flicking our brother on the shoulder.
“Sorry,” he says, rubbing a hand over the spot she flicked. “I assumed you knew.”
“Well, what are we going to do about it, Miles? Should I call Levi? We could get Coop here via FaceTime.”
“No,” I groan. “Levi hates Annie. Coop needs to focus on college, not me. There’s nothing to do. It’s time for Owen to move on,” I say, talking about myself in the third person, which only makes me want to smack myself.
But the truth is, I don’t want to move on. I want Annie.
There’s a pound on the front door. No bell rings, because like everything else in this house, the doorbell is broken.
I know that pound. I swivel my head around to look at Coco.
