“What Taylor Swift video?” Spencer asks from across the table. I feel my cheeks turning red and I shake my head at Phillip when he starts to pull his phone out of his back pocket. He smirks at me and I pinch his leg hard under the table.
“I swear I will actually murder you, Phillip,” I seethe under my breath at him. He has the audacity to wink at me before he turns his attention to Spencer.
“Oh, it’s nothing really,” he tells him. “I just got this great video of Pheebs singing her heart out to some Swiftie song in the shower after Kevin dumped her ass last Christmas.”
I close my eyes and focus on steadying my breathing. I don’t want to talk about this. And I definitely don’t want Spencer to know about it. He doesn’t get to know that another stupid man has broken my heart.
When I open my eyes, I find him staring at me from across the table with a strange expression on his face. I almost ask him what’s wrong, but he breaks eye contact with me and looks over at Phil.
“So you mean to tell me, you snuck into the bathroom while your sister was butt ass naked and recorded her?” He asks Phil, his face completely deadpan.
“Oh what the—no! I wasn’t in the bathroom with her! I was outside the door,” Phil yells out and stands up to leave. He’s a very hot headed little dude. Even if he’s now a foot taller than me.
“Well then how do you know it was Phoebe? She could have just had some crappy YouTuber singing and couldn’t reach her phone to change it,” Spencer argues.
Every time I think I’m talking myself out of falling for him again, he goes and does something swoon-worthy like that. I could kiss the man just for completely skipping over the whole breakup part of Phil’s story, even if he sort of just admitted that I have a crappy singing voice.
“It was her! I know what my sister sounds like when she sings.”
I have to hold back a laugh when I see how red Phil’s face is getting. Like I said, hot-headed.
“No, Spencer’s right. It was just a video ad. I don’t even like her music,” I tell him nonchalantly with a shrug of my shoulder. I catch Spencer’s gaze again and he’s trying so hard not to laugh, which makes me want to laugh.
When did we become a tolerable unit?
“Urg! You two are still just as annoying as you were five years ago. I’m leaving now. I’ll see you two tomorrow so I can wipe those smiles off of your faces when I win the first task.”
“I love you, turd face!” I yell out to him right after he stalks out of the room.
He pops his head back into the dining room and I know I’m forgiven when I see the twinkle in his green eyes. “I love you too, turd head. I’m glad you’re home. Also, everybody loves our girl T. Swift. You don’t have to lie about that just to save face in front ofhim.” He shoots an angry glare Spencer’s way before he turns on his heel and leaves again.
“Turd head?” Spencer is looking at me with an amused look on his face.
“He’s called me that for as long as I can remember,” I answer him with a soft laugh. “I called him a turd face once for stealing the last cookie, and in response, he called me a turd head and gave me half. It’s just always been our thing.”
He smiles at me and gets to his feet. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Pheebs.”
I don’t answer him back. Instead I’m stuck on mute watching him walk away, and enjoying every second of it.
That man sure has an ass on him now.
Chapter Eight
Spencer
I’mwalkingupthesteps to the Andrews' house with an extra large, and extra strong, black coffee in one hand, and a box of dozen holiday themed donuts in the other. I slept horribly last night, tossing and turning all night long in a miserably restless sleep. All I kept thinking about was how excited I was to wake up and see her again.
Which in hindsight, I know is a completely stupid thing to get my hopes up for. Yes, Phoebe may have given me a solid ten minutes of her attention last night without it turning ugly, but I don’t for one second think that it’s going to be repeated.
She still doesn’t know the full story of what actually went down between her sister and I all those years ago, and it’snotsomething I can tell her. That truth will always be up to Piper to tell, and I will silently bear that weight until she’s ready to. Because that’s what friends do for each other. Piper and I may not have talked over the last few years, but I’ll always consider her one of my best friends. I may be not-so-silently crushing on her sister, but I’ll never betray her trust just to get another shot at being with Phoebe.
I ring the doorbell with my elbow and a moment later Piper answers the door with a wide smile on her face. Her hair is pushed back with one of those bandana things. It has a candy cane design all over it and she has little reindeer earrings dangling from her ears.
“Oh my gosh dude, you’re officially back to best friend status,” she exclaims excitedly, snatching the box of donuts out of my hands before turning on her Grinch slippered heel back into the house.
“Good morning to you too, Pipes,” I mutter under my breath with a laugh and follow her into the house, closing the door softly behind me.
It’s only 9:40 in the morning, but Mrs. Andrews has the whole house in disarray. There are rolls of wrapping paper thrown haphazardly in every direction, along with rolls of tape and all sorts of ribbons. I spy Little E in the living room sizing up the huge tree sitting in front of the bay window like he’s trying to figure out how to climb it without knocking every ornament down on his way up. He’s wearing another sweater today, and this one is green with little Christmas trees all over it. I’m sure Mr. Andrews is wearing a very similar one.
