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“It forced me to have a place to put my stupid books. So that I could get a stupid education. So that I could go to stupid college. So that one day I could then get an even stupider job working at Hardin. It’s all so…”
“Stupid?” I question when he finally pauses long enough to take a much-needed breath.
“Exactly,” he sputters. Unaware of my overt sarcasm.
I pat his shoulder when he spins, sagging against the metal and waits for me. Classes are done for the day and everyone’s getting ready to go home.
“I should be playing basketball,” he grumbles to no one in particular.
“Hate to break it to you, but a lot of athletes still get an education even though that’s their dream,” I remind him sympathetically, grabbing my textbook.
His head and his shoulder roll never lifting from the lockers. That lopsided, goofy grin he’s shooting has me groaning.
I’m not going to like this.
“Whatever it is, Finn, the answer is already no.”
“Come on,” he whines.
“I said no,” and I mean it. That look is only good for… nothing. Absolutely nothing.
“Here me out, lil sis,” he says. “Besides, you basically owe me, I inherently defended you yesterday.”
I can feel the gawk in my own expression. That’s how stunned I am. His certainty in this one gesture knows no bounds.
Is he hearing himself right now? Were we in the same room when Abram all but threw us out? Or did he miss the part where he seemed about as excited at that idea as he did him playing basketball next year?
“Fine, what is it?” I ask, sagging in a similar gesture to his.
“What if—”
“No.”
Harrumphing, his mouth droops. “You’re the worst,” he states, rotating his body back forward. “I mean, what’s the use in having siblings if they aren’t willing to do what you want.”
I close my locker with a grin. “Sucks, doesn’t it?”
“I mean, all I was going to ask you to do is talk to Abram. One on one.Forme.”
My eyebrows lift to my hairline. In what world does that sound like a good idea?
“You’d have better luck convincing a dog he’s a cat than that happening,” I say. The words sprouting from my mouth before I could stop them.
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“Uh, I don’t know, maybe because this is the longest amount of time I've spent with him in the last eighteen years of my life?”
Whereas he’s known you since the day you were born, I want to add but figure it’s unnecessary. My duh tone giving that one away.
Unlike earlier, this time he does catch on to my mockery and his lips form a flat line in response. I mean, it’s fair. Itishard to miss the blatant, so-obvious-it-hits-you-in-the-face-with-it’s-obtuse-wittiness sarcasm.
He points a finger. “Okay, first. Unnecessary, and two, we may have shared a house, but that didn’t mean he was always in it. He traveled a lot.”
“And thus, all the need for parties?” Remembering how when I first met Hailey, she’d told me the Caspers’ house was known for them.
“That was before, besides I thought you guys were getting better? Aren’t you like, decent now?”
“Decent?” Not exactly what everyone dreams of when describing a father-daughter relationship.
