“Excuse you, I took AP US History last year.”
“Right. And are you in any AP classes this year?” he asked.
“Well…no. But that’s just because I don’t need to be in any when I’m not going to college.”
“You know what I meant, dip,” he said with a chuckle. “But I’ll amend my statement to say that we’d never willing subject ourselves to the academic torture of AP classes.”
“Thank you,” I nodded with a sarcastic grin in his direction.
After dropping Jae off at home, it was only a few more minutes to mine. I parked in the driveway behind my mom and smiled at the sight of my dad’s truck parked beside her. I forgot that he was off.
I blew out a breath, my lips vibrating against each other as I stepped into the house, kicking off my shoes into the hall closet.
“I’m home!” I dropped my bags on the stairs and passed through the hall and into the kitchen where the smell of food was making my mouth water.
“Hey, honey,” my mom smiled as she turned around to face me. “How was work?”
“It was good,” I shrugged, picking a crouton out of the bowl of salad on the table and popping it into my mouth. “When’s dinner gonna be ready?”
“Uh,” she eyed the clock on the oven, “five minutes. Go wash your hands and call your sister down here.”
I nodded and snuck another crouton before walking out of the kitchen and into the downstairs bathroom. I washed my hands and splashed some water on my face that was feeling sticky from sweating at the gym.
“Esther!” I shouted from the bottom of the stairs. I groaned when she didn’t respond and climbed the stairs two at a time.
“Esther!” I called out again, as I knocked on her bedroom door.
“What?” she shouted louder than necessary, making me think she had headphones on.
“Come eat,” I said loudly through her door, before spinning on my heel and bumping into my dad’s shoulder. “Oh! Hey, Dad.”
“Hey, bud,” he smiled, leading us down the stairs. “How was your day?”
“Good,” I smiled, squeezing his shoulders as we descended. “How was your day off with Mom?”
He chuckled, “It was great. Got the yard work done and Mom sent me on some errands. She wants me to build some bookshelves for Esty’s room.”
Esty bounded down the stairs behind us.
“Speak of the devil.”
“Shut up, Nox.” Esty shoved my shoulder as we all joined my mom at the round kitchen table.
My dad and I chuckled to ourselves at her attitude. She had more sass than our older sister Eden. I was glad to be avoiding her prime teenage years after I graduated. I couldn’t remember Eden being that mean at twelve-years-old, but with a six-year age gap between each of us, it wasn’t a surprise that we weren’t close. We just didn’t have anything in common. Which was why I considered Jae my brother and not just my cousin, despite how little time we may have spent together as children.
“Alright, let’s say grace,” my mom said, holding out her hand for me.
After the short prayer, we all dug into the food.
“So, who wants to go first?” my dad asked as he looked between Esty and me.
I silently asked my sister with a glance, and she shook her head.
“Okay, I guess I’ll go. I got my paper back in English and I got a B,” I glanced warily at my mom, and she nodded in approval. “And I stopped by the peer tutoring center like Ms. Mitchel suggested.”
“And how was that?” my dad interjected, shoving a piece of garlic bread into his mouth. “Do you think you’ll need more than what the peer tutoring can offer?”
“I mean it was just one day, but I think it’ll be fine,” I shrugged. I suddenly remembered the fact that Shiloh had shared with me and for some reason I had the urge to tell them. “Did you know that you can be allergic to your own tears?”
