Natalia bumps my arm. “Are you looking forward to seeing him?” she asks.
I feel that familiar tickle of a smile forcing its way onto my lips. “Who?”
She rolls her eyes. “My brother, duh.”
I sigh. “I’m not sure why you’re pushing it this much,” I lie. But Natalia has always wanted a sister, and she’s been pushing me and Cooper together since we were eight, sitting around a fire at night with our cootie catchers.
She’s been planning a wedding since that very night.
At only a year older than us, Cooper has somehow been that older boy every parent wants for their kid, and half the girls in our class want him, much to Natalia’s disdain.
She rolls her eyes, swiping her blonde hair over her shoulder. “We all know it’ll happen. I’m just calling it beforehand.”
I roll my eyes, but secretly, I know she’s right.
My mom’s voice pops into the back of my mind. My mom loves Natalia, despite frequently ranting that her grasp of reality is a little fuzzy. Natalia has always been headstrong. Always been that person who knows what she wants and will always do anything she can to get it.
But she’s a dreamer, according to my mom. And at thirteen,“we don’t know everything.”
I like to argue that we understand things a little betterthan they do sometimes, especially when I have to teach my parents how to use our TV remote every few months when they somehow forget.
We hear Cooper before we see him.
“Hey! Over here!” he calls, kicking a soccer ball to his sister. She stops it with her foot, immediately kicking it back at him. Hard.
It lands on his stomach, and with a loud grunt, he doubles over. “Not cool,” he moans as his knees hit the sand. I giggle a little, and Natalia looks at me from the corner of her eye with a smug smirk.
“Are you okay?” I ask, grabbing his arm and helping him up.
“Your friend is a bitch,” he whispers.
I narrow my eyes, but when he smiles, my annoyance melts away. “I’m kidding. She’s okay.”
“I—”
“Cooper!” a voice calls from across the beach, and his head whips around faster than I’ve ever seen.
My stomach sinks.
“I’ll be right back, alright?” he smiles at me, and my stomach ties in knots.
My lips grow tight as I look at the sand coating my feet. “Yeah,” I tell him with a nod.
I don’t watch as he runs off.
“He’ll be back,” Natalia says, grabbing my arm and leading me to the fire.
All I can do is hope she’s right.
CHAPTER 5
AMARA
Iwish for the day when I can look at Cooper Henry without my heart squeezing in my chest.
He’s the same boy I fell in love with years ago. The same idiot.
At one point, I used to think he would be mine. And thinking about those times hurts far too much for me to give energy to.
