Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
“Technically, Finn made sure we were in the neighborhood,” the girl standing beside him says and drops one of the brown bags to hold out her hand. “I’m Willow, by the way. Finn’s sister.”
I start to take her hand, but she surprises me by pulling me into a tight hug. Her skin is cold from being outside, but her attitude is warm. “It’s so great to meet you, Scottie,” she whispers into my ear.
Finn runs a hand through his hair, looking almost bashful. I’ve never, in the entire four months I’ve known him, seen him look truly nervous. Until now. “Scottie, these are my twin brothers, Jack and Travis. And, yeah, this is my chatter-mouth sister, Willow.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I say, even though my mind is swimming with confusion and my heart is racing. Finn is here? With his siblings? And they brought me a Christmas tree?
“Not trying to be rude here, Scottie,” Travis says with a cheeky grin. “But do you mind if we come inside? This tree is getting fucking heavy.”
“Trav,” Finn scolds. I shake my head and laugh. It’s impossible to be upset with someone when they’re being so damn honest with you.
“Uh…yeah…come on in…” I quickly glance over my shoulder to make sure there’s nothing too incriminating lying around behind me. I’m instantly thankful I speed-cleaned last night at midnight when I couldn’t fall asleep, when I remember the magazine art I’d made of Finn while I was watching The Truman Show.
I step back to hold the door open wider and gesture for them to come inside. Travis is the first one to clear the threshold, and Jack and Willow file in after him. Finn stops right at the entrance, his brown eyes probing mine with concern.
“Are you sure this is okay?” he asks, his voice a whisper. “Because we can—”
“Finn.” I hold my hand up. “It’s fine.” Good, even.
It feels surprisingly nice to get some unexpected Christmas cheer and even better that the majority of my guests know next to nothing about me. I know Finn would never have shared what happened with them, and the safety of knowing people aren’t making fun of me in their heads is thrilling.
Once Finn and I are inside and the door is closed behind us, I see that Travis has already found a spot for the tree—at the foot of my bed—and Willow has started putting ornaments on it. Jack is putting cookies and chips and other holiday-themed goodies on paper plates and setting them on my small coffee table. He’s also eating them while he does it.
“Wow,” I admit as I look around the already half-decorated room. “You guys came prepared.”
“Isn’t it great, Scottie?” Willow questions, a big smile on her lips as she puts an angel ornament on the tree.
“Yeah,” I say and mean it. “It’s definitely great. Thank you for doing this.” Thank you for making me not feel so alone.
The Holiday is still playing on the television, and Jack and Travis have made themselves comfortable on my futon, their eyes glued to the screen.
“I love this movie,” Jack says, and Travis cracks up.
“You would, dude.”
“What?” Jack steals a cookie out of Travis’s hands and shoves it into his mouth. “Kate Winslet is a goddess,” he adds, but cookie crumbs shoot past his lips as he talks.
“You guys are cringe,” Willow says, a scowl on her face. “Scottie is never going to invite us back.”
Finn’s eyes meet mine, and the smile that’s on his lips is half amused and half apologetic. It’s not my favorite smile of his, but I’d be lying if I said he had a bad one.
I want to ask him a million questions about his dad and Professor Winslow and how he’s handling it all. When Julia was at my dorm the other night, doing another one of her secret well-being checks that she disguises as being bored or wanting to watch Love is Blind with me, she told me about Finn’s dad showing up at the police station and everything that ensued after that.
Ace told her, of course, and then swore her to secrecy, which she then passed on to me. But I know no story is complete until you hear it from the primary source. There’s a reason that game called Telephone always gets the message so fucked up.
Until Finn tells me about it himself, I don’t trust any of the real details.
Mainly, though, I just want to know he’s okay. After everything we’ve been through, I’m still not over him.
Finn
“He did what?” Scottie questions and bursts into laughter. This is the fifth time my brothers have made her laugh like that in the last three hours, and I’m positively vibrating with satisfaction.
After Ace and Julia left yesterday, I spent an entire five hours warring with myself about going home for Christmas while Scottie was here by herself. I didn’t want to let my siblings down on the first real holiday for our family, but the thought of leaving Scottie here to rot in a bucket of sour feelings I’ve had the pleasure of marinating in my entire life seemed equally as cruel.