“I’ll check the liquor cabinet and get back to you.” Dad chuckles as he walks away, and when I look at Luca, I see the little lift of his mouth before he leaves the room.
Crack.
On Wednesday night, Mom finds me and Lil in the kitchen, debating dessert options. I’m leaning heavily toward coffee.
“How’s your head, sweetheart?”
“It’s good, Mom. Only hurts when Lil pokes at my stitches.”
Mom gapes at Lil. “Lilith, why?”
“Hey! Snitches get… more stitches, Ariana!” Lil points a finger at me before answering Mom. “And revenge, that’s why. For when she wouldn’t stop touching my giant zit last week.”
“Stop poking your sister’s head wound, Lil. And you,” Mom spins and catches me waving my middle fingers at Lil. I shove my hands behind my back like she didn’t see them and give her the most innocent smile I can muster. “Jesus, you two. Ari, leave your sister’s giant zits alone.”
“But they’re so squishy! I can’t help it.” Reaching out, I poke at a non-existent bump on Mom’s arm.
She swats my hand away. “You own dozens of squishies.”
Wrong. I own hundreds of squishies.
“Yes, but Lil’s more fun to poke.”
Mom rolls her eyes and moves on. Really, it’s her best option. “With everything that happened Saturday, I forgot to ask how the movie was.”
“Meh, you would like it, but it wasn’t really our thing. Too much romance.” Lil shrugs.
“Not enough violence. Or car chases,” I add. “And there was no blood at all. Very disappointing. 0.5/10, would not watch again.”
“Let’s have a movie night tonight!” Mom’s eyes light up. She loves movie nights as a family. “I’m sure we can find something with romance, violence, blood, and a car chase so everyone’s happy.”
“Ooooooo sounds like fun. I’ll go start the popcorn machine!” Lil heads for the stairs. Our popcorn is so much better than the actual theater’s. I don’t knowwhy. It just is.
“I’ll ask Becca if she wants to watch with us and start looking for a movie. God knows I can’t trust you two to do it. Can you find your dad and tell him the plan? And invite Luca, too.”
“Uh, sure.” By the look on Mom’s face, she notices the awkward smile on mine, and instead of giving her a chance to mention it, I ditch out at a full run. Only until I get to the hallway, though. Fuck running.
They’re not in the gym or Dad’s office. I enter the code on the keypad to open the door to the nerd room and quietly come up behind the four men standing in front of the monitors. “Whatcha watching? Porn?”
“Ariana, you’re supposed to knock on that door.”
“But where’s the fun in that, Dad? Nowhere.”
“Can we help you with something, Airhead?” Ford takes a step back and puts his elbow on top of my head.
“Yeah, you could use better deodorant.” I wrinkle my nose and sniff harder. “Dude. What is that, Fiat?”
“It’s called ‘Niece Repellant.’ Has a picture of your faces with one of those big red slashes across it on the front.”
“Sully give it to you for your birthday?”
“How’d you guess?”
“Sounds a lot like the ‘Asshole Away Spray’ with your face on it that we gave him for Secret Santa.”
“I never did find out who my Secret Santa was,” Ford says wistfully, shaking his head. “Got me that sweet pistol, and I can’t even thank them properly.” Unlike with Mom a few minutes ago, this time I’m able to keep my face from giving me away like I have for the last five months. Finding that gun for him was a pain in my ass.
Luca scoffs, his eyes still on the screens, his arms crossed. God, those arms. I swallow the saliva that pools in my mouth at the sight of them. “You do Secret Santa?”
