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)
Sure, it’s a half-baked plan at this point, but once I open the can of we-have-the-same-dad worms, there’s no way Julia and Ace will still want to be friends with me.
Because friends don’t hurt friends, and everything inside me wants to hurt Ty Winslow. I want to see the look on his smug, my-life-has-been-a-cakewalk face when he finds out we both have the same deadbeat dad. I want to see him feel an inkling of what it’s like to have our shitty father actually stay in your life and the kind of destruction that causes.
My phone buzzes in my pocket twice in two short bursts, and I pull it out to read the text. It’s from one of my younger brothers.
Travis: At tne Grto, Cver for me?
The Grotto is a really sketchy, unofficial club where underage kids in our town hang out because they don’t ID, and they can drink and screw around without the cops showing up. I find it creepy as fuck, since it’s in the catacombs where old New Yorkers are buried.
Drinking may not be my thing, but Travis and Jack—my younger twin brothers—can’t seem to get enough. Before I left for college, I was normally their DD, their protector, and their get-out-of-jail-free card. Frankly, keeping the two of them out of trouble has been a full-time job ever since they hit puberty.
Me: I’m at Dickson, Trav. You’re going to have to find someone else to cover for you while you’re at the Grotto. And for the love of everything, DO NOT DRIVE DRUNK.
Travis: Akl good. I wont drve.
“Fuck.”
“What’s wrong?” Ace asks, surprising me. His goofball act is absent from his face. Julia turns to us, attentive too.
“Nothing.” I shake my head and shove my phone back into my jeans. “Just one of my younger brothers getting into trouble like usual.”
He and Julia both let out huge exhales and nod simultaneously. My eyebrows draw together, but Julia rushes to explain. “We both have crazy younger siblings too. Though, my sister Evie is Taco Bell mild sauce compared to Ace’s brother, Gunnar.”
“Dude.” Ace runs a hand through his dark hair. “My baby bro is off his rocker.”
“More so than you and your dad?” I question with a knowing smirk. Ace doesn’t get defensive at all, instead nodding with wide eyes while Julia laughs herself sick.
“Tell him about Gunnar’s fourteenth birthday, Ace!”
“That crazy fucker paid off the window cleaning guys of our building to take him up to the 69th floor so he could stand outside our living room windows in his underwear with the words Birthday Boy painted on his chest.”
“And if that isn’t already crazy enough,” Julia chimes in, and the most adorable snort leaves her nose. “He timed it perfectly when Ace’s parents were throwing him a surprise party. Everyone was standing in the living room, waiting to yell ‘Surprise!’ but Gunnar was behind everyone through the windows.”
“Julia’s mom about had a stroke when Gunnar started pounding on the glass instead of coming through the door,” Ace states, smiling over at her.
“And your mom literally grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen and threatened to cut his balls off if he didn’t get his feet back to pavement!”
“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.” Ace laughs.
“How sure are you he wasn’t involved in the whole Titanic debacle?” I ask teasingly, making Julia snort beer through her nose.
Ace offers the sleeve of his suit coat to Julia without hesitation, adding, “I’m terrified for the day he starts college.”
“Me too. And your parents are going to be out of their minds. They’re worried about you, and you’re only a fourth of his crazy on a good day,” Julia teases. “The number of times your mom and my mom have texted me about you since we moved in to the dorms would make your nipple hairs stand on end.”
“What?” he questions, putting his hands over his nonexistent boobs out of reflex. “What the hell are they saying?”
She pulls her phone out of her purse and shows the screen to both of us. It’s a text conversation between Julia and Ace’s mom, Cassie.
Cassie: Is Ace still alive?
Julia: Yes.
Cassie: Is he planning on pranking Thatch back after that idiot showed up in Ty’s English class?
Julia: Also, yes.
Cassie: Son of a bitch. Maybe we should’ve sent him off to a college on the West Coast. Watch him for me, okay? Honestly, leash him if you have to. I’m not above leashing my kids.
Julia: I thought they only did that with toddlers with a run-into-traffic tendency?
Cassie: And? You’ve just described Ace, sweetheart. Anyway, I couldn’t send him to the West Coast because I need you together, and we both know your stage-five-clinger mother would’ve spent the next six months crying her eyes out if you were so far away.
Julia: Speaking of my mother, I think it would be REALLY great if you take her out for some drinks so she’s too busy to call and text me every 10 minutes.