This isn’t like my sister, so I don’t move an inch. I do nothing with my face. I just wait and listen.
“Mom said we were always like this. Everything that was mine had to stay mine. I couldn’t ever share.” She sighs. “I guess when I talked to her, she pointed out that when we were young, it was physical things, and then when we became teenagers, it became friends. And I’ve always been jealous of you.”
“G,” I start, but she puts her palm up. I can’t begin to tell her how shitty that makes me feel. My sister has never been my competition, but that’s exactly what I am to her. I love her and want her to thrive.
She takes a Camdenth. “I’m sorry about the other morning at the equipment room. I wasn’t just mad –– I was mean. I have been replaying it in the equipment room with you in front of Kev and Frank and I — I shouldn’t have done that to you. Not in front of them. But what I’m most sorry for is for how I handled everything with Lucy.” She looks down. “Mom said I need to relax and back off. I have an all-or-nothing mentality, and you know.”
I nod. “It runs in the family.”
The room is silent for a while.
I tell her, “I forgive you, G. Even before you apologized. It’s okay. I know you. I knew you’d come around eventually.”
She inhales and leans on the counter. “You’re in love, aren’t you?” she whispers.
I put my finger to my mouth and furrow my brow at her.
Gianna smiles back at me and then opens her mouth in excitement but doesn’t make a sound.
“Benson,” she whispers.
I look over at the couch. Lucy’s on her phone, eating ice cream.
Gianna whispers very low. “I love her too.”
“Yeah.”
I turn back to her and exhale quietly.
“Can I hug you?” she asks.
I open my arms. “Yeah, G.”
She comes around the island, and I meet her in the middle of the kitchen. I give her a real hug — both arms around her shoulders, her face against the front of my hoodie, her hands gripping the back of it the way she used to grip my t-shirt when she was eight and our grandmother had just died. I have her tight. Her shoulders relax. After a moment, she pulls back.
I turn toward the couch and cross the room. I sit down on the couch next to Lucy and pull her against my side, and she lets her body fall into mine. Her chin rests on my shoulder as she looks over at me.
“You okay?” she whispers.
I nod, looking down at her lips. She has the same lip gloss on. I didn’t get a chance to taste them yesterday, so I’m determined to today.
Gianna, from the island, dry, “Oh my god, you guys.”
That Camdenks the spell. Lucy looks over at her and then laughs shyly into my shoulder.
I grin.
Gianna walks over and says, “Benson, you’re probably starving. Should we order Thai food?”
I shake my head. “Sorry, Rowan’s already cooking dinner. I left in the middle of it and need to get back soon.” I look down at Lucy cuddled against me. My heart pounds when I see her eyes flick to mine. “You’re coming with me, right?”
She looks at Gianna like she doesn’t know how to answer that.
“G, do you wanna come to?”
“What?” Gianna scoffs. “Me come to the Hawthorne House for dinner?”
I nod like it’s no big deal, but I’m positive I’ll hear it from the guys. “Yeah, for dinner.”
