Lina: Please just tell me you’re sleeping over at someone else’s house.
Lina: Morning. Are you awake? Are you okay?
Missed Call from Lina
Lina: Please text me when you’re up.
Oscar’s heart filled with remorse. Sure, he’d been furious when he’d left the previous night, and he hadn’t looked at his phone since coming to Aaron’s, but Lina hadn’t been theone to say those awful things to him. Maybe she’d chosen Ryan for a boyfriend, but she hadn’t put those words in his mouth.
Oscar: Sorry. Fell asleep. I’m fine. Maybe you should be checking on your boyfriend. See if he’s still stuck in the 1800s.
It was biting and bitchy, but Ryan deserved it. What an asshole thing to say. The bouncing dots appeared almost instantly.
Lina: I would if I were talking to him. (:
Lina: I’m so sorry, Oscar. Honestly. I sent him straight home after.
Oscar: You should have put him in the corner like Miss Lisa in Kindergarten.
Lina: Yeah, I would have, but I couldn’t stand to look at the back of his head.
Oscar: Lol
Lina: Don’t lol me. Are you really okay?
Oscar: Alive and well.
Lina: That isn’t what I’m asking, but fine. Avoid. You’re a lot like Mom sometimes.
Oscar: Go face the corner.
Oscar: *Kisses*
Lina: *Kisses*. More than Ryan’s getting. >:(
Oscar: Papa approves
Oscar sent her the picture of thumbs-up Papa,practically a sibling meme by now. He wondered how Papa would have reacted if he’d been around to hear Ryan misgendering Oscar.
Lina sent him a picture of herself thumbs-upping back, a grin on her face, but Oscar could see the red rimming her eyes, and suddenly, guilt consumed him. It couldn’t feel good for her to be arguing with her boyfriend over her brother’s honor, but then, her boyfriend shouldn’t have put her in that position either. And Lina deserved someone better than that. Oscar sent her a snap of himself lying on Aaron’s pillow, tongue sticking out.
Lina: Where are you? :O
Oscar: I’m at ‘None of Your Business.’ Ever been there?
Lina: It’s right next door to ‘Fuck You,’ right?
Oscar: Yes (: Now go and get started. Don’t you have a job to get to?
Lina: Tomorrow. But yeah, I’m going to walk around campus for a bit. I’ll send pics.
Oscar: Can’t wait ;)
Right. Oscar should have stayed. They’d planned on walking around, spending the day together. He and Lina hadn’t done that in so long, and he’d walked out the first time he’d had a chance in weeks. Months, really. The lead-up to his surgery had been such a messy time: so many late nights googling recovery, so many appointments with his surgeon, looking for alternatives to drains, extra mornings with Christina, going over everything, as though he wouldn’t have taken a kitchen knife to them if that was his only chance.
The point was, he hadn’t really been around for Lina, andOscar needed to make it up to her. She was his little sister, and she’d been there for him after Papa couldn’t be anymore. He owed her more than this.
Oscar was still thinking about it when he emerged from Aaron’s room, his bursting bladder precluding him from delaying any interaction with Gymbro Joe.
