“And what?”
Tempest sighs. “Oh my God, Reed. Talking to you is like pulling teeth.”
“Well, then there you go. You shouldn’t.”
“As if.” I bet she’s rolling her eyes. “I’m not letting you go so easily. This is the first time you’ve seen her in two years.Two years, Reed. I’ve been telling you and telling you to go back and see her. Or just talk to her, but you wouldn’t. So of course I’m gonna ask questions. And if you want me to leave you alone, you could just answer them and be done with it.”
She’s right. That’s the best course of action here.
“Fine. Ask your fucking questions.”
She squeals into the phone and I have to pull it away and wait for her to just fucking talk as I shake my head.
“Okay, so did you talk to her?” she asks excitedly.
I clench my jaw for a second before replying, “Yes.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Global warming.”
She sighs again but she isn’t deterred. “Okay, fine. Don’t tell me. Just tell me this: were you mean to her?”
“I’m never mean.”
“Oh my God.” She gasps again; my sister is dramatic. “You were, weren’t you? Why, Reed? You’re supposed to be nice to her. You know that she’s miserable in that place. Youknowthat.”
I clutch the phone tightly. “Well, she wouldn’tbein that place if she hadn’t stolen my car.”
And if my father hadn’t fucked with her because of it.
“She stole your car because you were being a dick to her.”
“I was being honest.”
“Yes, and in the process you broke her heart. She was in love with you, Reed.”
There’s a pain in my chest.
Like someone has kicked it, my ribs, on purpose.
Like Ledger, her brother, has kicked my chest and punched my stomach because I broke her heart.
“And how is that my problem?” I snap into the phone, trying to ride through the burning pain. “I never asked her to fall in love with me. But she did, stupidly.”
I don’t do love. I don’t even know what love is.
All I know is that I have a father who may or may not be a fucking psychopath, whom I’d like to strangle with my barehands one day. I don’t have space for anything else in my life other than that.
“Falling in love with you is not stupid,” Pest says.
I pinch the bridge of my nose as I sigh. “Yeah, let’s make a rule okay, Pest? When we talk to Reed, we don’t use the L word.”
I purposefully use the tone that I know she’ll hate. That’s the only way to get her to shut up. But again she isn’t deterred. “I’m not going to shut up, just so you know. I know you want me to but I’m not going to. I’m going to keep talking and I’m going to tell you that yes, you can be rude and very insensitive sometimes. For example, right now. And you can be controlling and you think you know everything but you’re not that bad, Reed. You think you are but you’re not. Look what you did for her. How yousavedher —”
I cut her off right there. “Is there anything else?”
I’m ready to end this conversation but she doesn’t let me go. “Are youreallynever going to tell her?”
