I park in the driveway and note dad’s truck is still missing. Looks like two Waterman’s scored last night, let’s hope it’s not three. Not that I consider what I’m doing with Reese a game. She might. It doesn’t mean I do.
I head into the house to find Neva on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her, cartoons playing softly on the television.
“Where were you?” Her hair is twisted in a rat’s nest on top of her hair. Her makeup is dripping halfway down her cheek giving her that zombie vibe she’s been after these last few years. Sometimes I seriously miss the cute little kid she used to be.
“None of your business.” I head to the kitchen and start a pot of coffee, tossing in a few extra scoops to intensify the pick me up. “What has you up so early?”
“I always get up early, but you wouldn’t notice.” She grumbles something under her breath, and I miss that last part. “So, were you with her?”
My arm freezes, midair, as I’m about to reach for a mug. That goofy grin is itching to make its reprisal.
“Yeah, I was with her. We were just hanging out.” I turn on the coffeemaker like it’s no big deal. “We must of fell asleep.”
“Just hanging out, huh? Where? In your car?” She sounds incensed that it could have happened at all, let alone in the Cougar.
“No, not in the car.” I head over to the table and flip open my laptop. “Again, it’s none of your business.”
“Well I sort of feel like itismy business.” Neva snaps like she’s about to start ripping off heads. I glance up just in time to see the fire in her eyes.
“All right, I give. What’s the deal? You cut Reese out of your life, and now, you want me to join in on the fun? Too bad. It’s not happening.” Not now, not ever.
“Yeah? How about some family camaraderie? What happened to all that I’ve-got-your-back-no-matter-what bullshit you fed me when Mom died?”
My heart stops because for a minute I think maybe I blocked out some huge life event.
“She didn’t die, Neva. Sheleft.” I cut the air with my words as if I were somehow using my mother to deflect the blow she wanted to inflict on Reese and me.
“Same difference,” she huffs as she tosses the blanket to the floor. “I guess I could have figured that you’d be the next in line to abandon me.”
“How am I abandoning you by hanging out with Reese?” I rub my eye until it feels like it’s going to invert into my skull. I’m too fucking tired to do this shit with her.
“Did you sleep together?” Neva’s voice rails through the air and saws over my last nerve.
“Not in the biblical sense.” Not yet anyway.
“Then why did she come here dressed to impress with her feet pressed into her fuck-me gear?”
She did, didn’t she? A dull smile rides low on my lips at the memory.
“Look, I know you don’t like her. I get it. For whatever reason she’s your mortal enemy. But, for the record, I’ve never once heard her say anything bad about you. And that’s true as shit, so get off my fucking back.”
“Right.” Neva drills into me with those raccoon eyes. “She’s only screwing my brother. I think that goes a little further than talking behind my back to her stupid ivy-league friends.”
“You’re friends with all the same people.”
“And I know for a fact they think they’re better than us.” She picks up a magazine and glances over it before tossing it to the floor. “Look, I know you were with her last night, but I also know she’s pretty serious with herboyfriend, Warren. He told me so himself.”
I don’t bother glancing up, just finish perusing the Yeats’ rowing team’s homepage to see if they’ve added my name to the roster yet. “Don’t believe everything you hear. They’re not that serious.”
“Then why did he show Brylee and me the engagement ring he bought for her? He said he was going to pop the question on the Fourth of July.”
My insides boil with heat. I shut the laptop and stare at the chipped cabinets for a brief moment.
“Really?” I straighten in my seat, trying to remember if she ever mentioned breaking things off with him the other night at the Blue Crab. “I doubt it’ll happen. Even if he does, she won’t say yes.”
“Why’s that? Because she’s so in love with you?” She storms over to the table with the look of mockery ripe in her eyes. Neva leans in and bares her fangs in a sarcastic smile. “You’ll never be anything but some cheap throwaway toy to someone like her. Just watch—she’ll be engaged to Warren McMoney by summers end, and she’ll have you chopping the firewood to heat their happy home. That’s all you’ll ever be to her is some tool she fucked for the hell of it.”
“Shut up,” I say it low. My palms flattened over the table to keep from turning it over.
