I punched him lightly on the shoulder as a much-needed genuine chuckle escaped. “Goodnight, douchebag.”
“Love you too, idiot.” Carson blew kisses at me as he walked backwards out of the room.
The nightmares happened at least once a week. Without fail, I would endure traumatizing, fire-related terror that left me sweaty and panting. When Carson was there to wake me up, it was bearable, but when he wasn’t, the nightmare would last for what felt like forever.
The only good thing about that nightmare was that it finally got my mind off of Alex for a while.
Chapter Seven
ALEX
Iswung the door open. “You’re late.”
Annabelle stood in front of me, her hair a mess on her head, and her shoulders slumped from exhaustion. “Overtime.”
Taking a step back so she could come inside, I sighed. “And you couldn’t have texted me?”
“Sorry,” she muttered. “She’s asleep, so not that big a deal. Right?”
Not that big of a deal?Mills and I spent an hour working on her homework, in which I had to transform into a third-grade math teacher when I should have been working on my own assignments. Yes, she fell asleep, but that wasn’t until after she showed me her dance routine twice and begged me to give her a dollar to go to the vending machine again.
My sister needed a babysitter, and I was more than willing to be that for her, but I didn’t think it was very fair not to give me a heads-up that she’d be two hours late.
I stayed silent as Annabelle picked up her sleeping child. Once Millie lay securely over her shoulder, she asked, “How was your day?”
I shrugged. “Fine.”
She gave me a blank stare. “Anything new happened?”
“Nothing you want to hear about.”
“You know what I’m asking,” Anna said, her tone authoritative. “Have you seen River?”
“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” I grumbled, not appreciating her barging in and demanding to know what I‘d done over the past week.
I was nineteen years old, for fuck’s sake, and I had already had to deal with the controlling habits of my parents throughout high school, and even sometimes now. Throw my sister’s nosiness on top of that, and I was about ready to lose it.
“Calm down, I?—”
“I am calm,” I interjected, keeping my tone as steady as possible.
Anna’s lips pressed into a straight line as she exhaled and adjusted Millie to lie on her other side. Sleeping Millie sighed, and thinking she was going to wake up, Annabelle rubbed small circles on her back, but her eyes stayed focused on me.
“I want to make sure you aren’t stressed out.” Her eyes search the top of my head. “Your hair seems to be intact, so maybe I’m over worrying.”
Often, I felt like another child to my sister rather than her brother. Back in grade school, when River cut me off, she told me to forget about him. When my ex first started being distant, she immediately jumped on the breakup train. Hell, she’d been telling me to distance myself from our control freak parents for years, but I’d yet to do it. Anna was wise, but she didn’t know everything. That did not stop her from trying to guide me in every decision.
“I have a project with River,” I admitted as I sat on the couch before her.
“What wouldpossessyou to join his group?” Annabelle whisper-yelled. “I don’t understand you sometimes, Alex. Why would you willingly be around a guy who wants nothing to do with you?”
Aside from the fact that I was almost out of options after my friends replaced my spot in the group with one of their friends? Pure stupidity, I’d guess.
My head recoiled in offense. “If he really wants nothing to do with me, then why is he always looking? Why was he talking to me?”
“River is the same man who acts like he didn’t spend five out of the seven days of the week at our house years ago.”
I pulled my legs to my chest and squeezed, trying to ease the jolt of pain that realization just sent to my chest. It hurt more to hear someone else say it than to know it myself—he was actively showing me I was forgettable. All of those memories that I cherished deeply meant nothing to him, and while I yearned for our connection back, he was the one keeping it away.
