“No one’s making you sit here with me,” she replies without looking up from her computer as her fingers fly across the keyboard.
“She has a point,” Ryan chimes in, and I roll my eyes.
“I have a point too.”
He scoffs, raising his eyebrow in suspicion. “Which is?”
Well, shit. I actually don’t have a point, other than being bored and wanting to hang out with them. “I’m not telling you,” I say, hating how childish it sounds. Carter skipped tonight to sub in a recreational soccer game with his friends, but I look forward to Sundays all week.
“So what you mean is you don’t have a point,” Luna says, and it’s annoying how well she can read my mind.
“You know you don’t know everything about me,” I argue, leaning back in the chair to cross my arms.
“I didn’t say I did. I said you don’t actually have a point.”
Ryan groans, shooting both of us a look. “Stop. You’re both annoying me. I have a huge project this week, and my group is going to murder me if I don’t pull my weight.”
A door slams from upstairs before I can come up with anything, and heavy footsteps stomp down the stairs before the slam of a front door follows.
It’s enough to make all of us fall quiet.
Luna decides to break the awkward silence a moment later. “I think they’ve been fighting a lot lately,” she says, closing her computer.
I don’t know what to say. If I’m being honest, I don’t think Ryan does either. She’s not done dropping bombs though.
“Honestly, this might make me a terrible daughter, but atthis point, I wish they’d either separate or divorce. It’d be better than listening to them yell and then watch Dad leave all the time.” Luna’s face twists, almost like she can’t believe the words came out of her mouth, but she doesn’t take them back. I admire her for it.
She’s precise with her words, as if each one is being etched in stone.
Luna gets up from the table with a sigh and walks straight out the patio doors to the backyard. Ryan drags his hands over his face, and I wish Carter were here because he’d know the right thing to say.
“Wow.”
“Do you think she’s okay?” I ask, shifting in my seat. I’ve been afraid to ask, but I’m hoping the issues in their marriage aren’t as a result of my presence.
“Would you be?”
I’m not really sure if that’s a question I can answer, considering my parents don’t even know where I am, and I haven’t spoken to them in months. “You should go check on her.”
“I think she’d prefer if it were you,” he replies, and I’m stunned he would think that.
“You’re her brother, Ry,” I stammer. “I’m just her half brother’s half brother, and probably the reason your parents are fighting in the first place.”
“Bailey, you’re herfriend. Believe it or not, she doesn’t have many of those, and I really think Lu could use a friend right now instead of her older brother.”
I think I’ve gotten so used to everyone always needing someone else that the idea of someone actually needing me is . . . surprising. I guess I just wasn’t expecting it.
He focuses on his computer again, and I turn to look at the back door. Wherever Luna is, she can’t be seen from where I’m sitting, but I guess Ryan really isn’t going to go out there.
Pushing the chair back from the table, I walk out the doorwithout second guessing it. I like Luna, and I don’t think there’s anything I can do to fix this for her, but I can be her friend.
Luna is sitting in the hammock hanging between two trees in the corner of the backyard. I didn’t think to grab my shoes, and the grass is still wet from the sprinklers that were running when I got here.
“You okay?” I ask, treading cautiously as she lifts her head to see me a few feet away. Luna moves further up on her end of the hammock.
“Sure,” she says, shrugging as she adjusts to sit crisscross, and I assume she’s making room for me to sit.
I carefully slide into the hammock, making sure not to flip it. Unfortunately, my added weight forces both of us to slide into the middle of the canvas. Luna’s knees press up against my shin.
