She pushes past me and steps into her room, throwing her bag down in front of the closet and leaning out the window. I guess she’s never seen the view from here before.
I should just turn and head back downstairs, but my brain’s too busy racing. Every time we see each other, I wonder why we find it so damn impossible to get along. Siblings aren’t required to be best friends—I get that. But I have no idea when our paths split this much. I’m three years older than Amelia, and she loved me when she was a kid. I literally couldn’t shake her off. She was like my shadow. And then one day, she started hating me out of nowhere. I never thoughttoo hard. Not until now. But I guess almost losing my dad has a way of shaking things loose.
“Need anything?” I ask.
“No.”
She stands there in silence with her forehead pressed to the glass.
“Care to share why you can’t stand me anymore?” I try. “Or are you planning to take that mystery to the grave?”
She breathes out, keeping her back firmly turned to me.
“I mean, what happened?” I continue. “Did I eat one of your cookies without realizing, or something? Did I, like, finish the cereal without asking if you wanted any?”
“Get lost,” she snaps, banging her head against the window.
“You’resofucking annoying, Amelia.”
“You know what, Donovan? Go fuck yourself.”
Amazing! We managed a whole ten minutes.
“You’re about to turn eighteen. Maybe it’s time to start acting like it,” I suggest. “At least make an effort for Dad. He nearly died back there.”
I leave her standing by the window and head straight to my car, doing my best to ignore my mom calling after me. There’s no way I’m spending the evening trapped between my nemesis of a sister and my dad’s aches and pains. I need my Campus Drivers fix before I lose my mind.
2DONOVAN
It’s the first day back at college and the Sycamore campus is buzzing. People laughing, students jostling, Campus Drivers thriving. It should feel good. It doesn’t.
This is my fourth year here, and every time I’ve returned to SHU I’ve loved it. But this time I feel like shit. I just lived through the worst summer of my life. You’d think I’d finally be able to breathe now that it’s over and I’m about to slip back into my beloved college routine. But the version of Donovan who used to stride toward the main building like he owned the place? That guy has gone. The old me has given way to a loser who just realized how badly he fucked up and doesn’t know how to make things right again.
I thought Dad’s heart attack would be the worst thing I would ever have to deal with, but I was wrong.Fuck. Even just thinking about it makes me want to break shit.
I knew my sister coming to stay in July would be a disaster as usual, but things got even worse than expected. I was hoping to try to figure out why we’d drifted apart. And what happened instead? A total shit show, that’s what. I’m so pissed off right now. At my parents, for never bothering to figure out why Amelia hated me so much all these years. At myself, even more, for letting it get this bad.
“Hey, Donny!”
A girl whose face rings the faintest bell steps in front of me at the staircase, yanking me out of my downward spiral. Since she’s using the nickname all my fangirls use, it doesn’t take a genius to guess why she’s here.
“Hey… you.”
Her name doesn’t even try to surface.
“I wanted to book a ride with my favorite driverever, but you weren’t free. Which sucks.” She pouts at me. “I wanted a repeat experience.”
I smile helplessly at her.
“Remember? You promised me another epic ride…”
She stares at me meaningfully.
Fuck. Now I get it. I’m staring straight down the barrel of a former booty call. Her eyes narrow, and yeah—she can definitely tell from my face that I have no fucking clue what she’s talking about. Normally, I’d bounce back with ease, but she couldn’t have caught me at a worst time. This conversation is exactly the kind of shit the old me would have got himself into. Reminder—that guy doesn’t exist anymore.
“You are joking,” she says slowly. “You don’t even know who I am.” She waves a hand in my face. “I’m Lisa!”
Yeah, she’s pissed.Mayday, Mayday!
