“You looked nervous. Did something happen?” Matt asked, and I sighed. He took his whole big brother thing way too seriously.
“No, nothing happened. School sucks,” I said, brushing him off. “Let’s go home.”
“Seat belt,” Matt commanded, and I did as I was told.
Matt had always been quiet and reserved, thinking everything over carefully before making a decision. He was a stark contrast to me in every way, except that we were both relatively short. I was small, with a decidedly pretty, feminine face. My brown hair was an untamed mess of curls that I kept up in loose buns.
He kept his sandy blond hair trim and neat, and his eyes were the same shade of blue as our mother’s. Matt wasn’t overtly muscular, but he was sturdy and athletic from working out a lot. He had a sense of duty, like he had to make sure he was strong enough to defend us against anything.
“How is school going?” Matt asked.
“Great. Fantastic. Amazing.”
“Are you even going to graduate this year?” Matt had long since stopped judging my school record. A large part of him didn’t even care if I graduated from high school.
“Who knows?” I shrugged.
Everywhere I went, kids never seemed to like me. Even before I said or did anything. I felt like I had something wrong with me and everyone knew it. I tried getting along with the other kids, but I’d only take getting pushed for so long before I pushed back. Principals and deans were quick to expel me, probably sensing the same things the kids did.
I just didn’t belong.
“Just to warn you, Maggie’s taking it seriously,” Matt said. “She’s set on you graduating this year, from this school.”
“Delightful.” I sighed. Matt couldn’t care less about my schooling, but my aunt Maggie was a different story. And since she was my legal guardian, her opinion mattered more. “What’s her plan?”
“Maggie’s thinking bedtimes,” Matt informed me with a smirk. As if sending me to bed early would somehow prevent me from getting in a fight.
“I’m almost eighteen!” I groaned. “What is she thinking?”
“You’ve got four more months until you’re eighteen,” Matt corrected me sharply, and his hand tightened on the steering wheel. He suffered from serious delusions that I was going to run away as soon as I turned eighteen, and nothing I could say would convince him otherwise.
“Yeah, whatever.” I waved it off. “Did you tell her she’s insane?”
“I figured she’d hear it enough from you.” Matt grinned at me.
“So did you find a job?” I asked tentatively, and he shook his head.
He’d just finished an internship over the summer, working with a great architecture firm. He’d said it didn’t bother him, moving to a town without much call for a promising young architect, but I couldn’t help feeling guilty about it.
“This is a pretty town,” I said, looking out the window.
We approached our new house, buried on an average suburban street among a slew of maples and elms. It actually seemed like a boring small town, but I’d promised I’d make the best of it. I really wanted to. I didn’t think I could handle disappointing Matt anymore.
“So you’re really gonna try here?” Matt asked, looking over at me. We had pulled up in the driveway next to the butter-colored Victorian that Maggie had bought last month.
“I already am,” I insisted with a smile. “I’ve been talking to this Finn kid.” Sure, I’d talked to him only once, and I wouldn’t even remotely count him as a friend, but I had to tell Matt something.
“Look at you. Making your very first friend.” Matt shut off the car’s engine and looked at me with veiled amusement.
“Yeah, well, how many friends do you have?” I countered. He just shook his head and got out of the car, and I quickly followed him. “That’s what I thought.”
“I’ve had friends before. Gone to parties. Kissed a girl. The whole nine yards,” Matt said as he went through the side door into the house.
“So you say.” I kicked off my shoes as soon as we walked into the kitchen, which was still in various stages of unpacking. As many times as we’d moved, everyone had gotten tired of the whole process, so we tended to live out of boxes. “I’ve only seen one of these alleged girls.”
“Yeah, ’cause when I brought her home, you set her dress on fire! While she was wearing it!” Matt pulled off his sunglasses and looked at me severely.
“Oh, come on. That was an accident and you know it.”
“So you say.” Matt opened the fridge.
“Anything good in there?” I asked and hopped onto the kitchen island. “I’m famished.”
“Probably nothing you’d like.” Matt started sifting through the contents of the fridge, but he was right.
I was a notoriously picky eater. While I had never purposely sought out the life of a vegan, I seemed to hate most things that had either meat in them or man-made synthetics. It was odd and incredibly irritating for the people who tried to feed me.
Maggie appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, flecks of paint stuck in her blond curls. Layers of multicolored paint covered her ratty overalls, proof of all the rooms she had redecorated over the years. She had her hands on her hips, so Matt shut the fridge door to give her his full attention.
“I thought I told you to tell me when you got home,” Maggie said.
“We’re home?” Matt offered.
“I can see that.” Maggie rolled her eyes, and then turned her attention to me. “How was school?”
“Good,” I said. “I’m trying harder.”
“We’ve heard that before.” Maggie gave me a weary look.
I hated it when she gave me that look. I hated knowing that I made her feel that way, that I had disappointed her that much. She did so much for me, and the only thing she asked of me was that I at least try at school. I had to make it work this time.
“Well, yeah … but …” I looked to Matt for help. “I mean, I actually promised Matt this time. And I’m making a friend.”
“She’s talking to some guy named Finn,” Matt said corroborating my story.
“Like a guy guy?” Maggie smiled too broadly for my liking.
The idea of Finn being a romantic prospect hadn’t crossed Matt’s mind before, and he suddenly tensed up, looking at me with a new scrutiny. Fortunately for him, that idea hadn’t crossed my mind either.
“No, nothing like that.” I shook my head. “He’s just a guy, I guess. I don’t know. He seems nice enough.”
“Nice?” Maggie gushed. “That’s a start! And much better than that anarchist with the tattoo on his face.”
“We weren’t friends,” I corrected her. “I just stole his motorcycle. While he happened to be on it.”
Nobody had ever really believed that story, but it was true, and it was how I figured out that I could get people to do things just by thinking it. I had been thinking that I really wanted his bike, and then I was looking at him and he was listening to me, even though I hadn’t said anything. Then I was driving his motorcycle.