“Nice place,” he said as I opened the door, fingering a piece of wallpaper that had started to peel away. I told him it was hard to keep the place spotless with so many people coming in and out all the time.
“Ready for your big debut?” I asked him.
“I was born ready.”
I edged past him into the living room, where everybody was sitting there just as they had before I left.
“Spencer,” I said, “you’ve met most of these people, but I’ll just go through the motions anyway. This is Naya and Will. They were at Grandma’s funeral. This is Mike, Jack’s brother. Jack, like I told you, is away traveling. And this is Sue, our other roommate.”
Everyone turned and inspected him, pretty tactlessly if you ask me.“Guys, this is my brother Spencer,” I added. “I told him he could spend the night here.”
“Of course!” Naya said, smiling. “Take a seat! We’re dying for you to tell us all the embarrassing stories from Jenna’s childhood!”
I’d have preferred we skip that, but I was glad there wassomeonewelcoming there, not just Mike channel surfing like a zombie and Sue absorbed in her magazine. I guess whatever intrigue she’d felt the day before about my brother’s looks had evaporated.
Spencer grinned, flopped down beside Will, and said, “I’m afraid I’d need way more than one afternoon for that.”
“Jenna said you’re here for a convention?” Will asked.
“Yeah, I have a speech in like two hours,” Spencer responded. “It’s not that big a deal, but they invited me and they’re paying my airfare, so what the hell? Besides, it was a good opportunity to visit my little sister. I should probably go ahead and add that I’m supposed to be spying for Mom and Dad.”
“What are you going to tell them?” I asked him.
“Honestly, we don’t talk much, and as far as I can tell, you’re not pregnant, so there’s still no Shannon-level disasters on the horizon. I’ll just tell them everything’s great. They won’t believe me, but whatever.” As he said this, he noticed Naya’s belly and rushed to correct himself: “Not that there’s anything wrong with being pregnant! I’m just saying…”
Naya laughed mischievously. Since she hadn’t said a word up to now, Spencer addressed Sue directly: “So, are you a student, too?”
Sue sighed, already bored. “Yeah.”
“I assume you’re majoring in communications?” That was a good one, and all of us chuckled.
Sue looked up and responded, “Psychology. I’m interested in what makes people think.”
“Sounds complicated,” Spencer said.
“It’s not. Most people are simpler than the average lab rat.” She stood and tossed her magazine aside on her way to the kitchen. “You want a beer?”
“Sure,” Spencer said.
Hold on—was there some kind of attraction here? When Sue was merely cranky, that was a cause for celebration in our home. At her worst, she’d give Satan a run for his money. But here she was playing hostess, and if I wasn’t mistaken, I had actually seen her smirk. And there was no doubt that my brother was checking her out. Even as he opened his beer and took a sip of it, he didn’t take his eyes off her.Ewww…Will and Naya could tell where my mind was and were both grinning as Sue and Spencer struck back up their conversation. After a few seconds, Mike barged outside to smoke. I guess he was jealous, but surely he knew by now Sue would never give him the time of day.
I had thought I’d need to stay close to Spencer’s side so he wouldn’t feel out of place. But I now realized the only person out of place was me. So I announced that I needed a breath of fresh air and headed up to the roof.
I hadn’t been up there in ages, and I’d never been nuts about climbing the fire escape. Even when Jack helped me up there, I tended to get scared. But I told myself it was time to be a modern, independent woman, then I cursed Mike, then I stuck one leg through the open window. I climbed up clumsily, one step at a time, shaking the ladder slightly to make sure it wouldn’t collapse on me. When I got to the top, I noticed it was freezing.
I found Mike standing close to the ledge, one hand in his pocket and one holding his cigarette. He blew out a mouthful of smoke, looking utterly self-absorbed. I thought about startling him—getting him back for when he’d terrified me in the car the other day—but I didn’t want to send him flying off into the abyss, so I just said, “Hi.”
He must not have wanted company, because he froze when he heard me.
“Hey,” he said tentatively. It sounded almost like a question.
“You mind if I hang out up here?”
He shrugged, confused. I think he was asking himself what I wanted. He looked away and took another drag of his cigarette. When he was calm—which rarely happened—he looked a lot like Jack. Shorter, with longer hair, but otherwise nearly identical. He could feel my eyes on him, and I think it was starting to bother him, because he said, “Unless you’re studying me for one of your paintings, could you stop looking at me like that?”
“Sorry, I, uh… I didn’t realize I was staring.”
“Did you need something?”
