Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
“Logan’s a little delinquent,” I pointed out.
“Okay, yes,” he said, crossing his arms. “But grounding him isn’t stopping that. Maybe if his mom wasn’t screwing the mailman, he wouldn’t be so pissed off all the time.”
“His mom’s screwing the mailman?” I gasped, my eyes wide.
“Figure of speech.”
“That is not a figure of speech.”
“His parents cheat on each other all the time,” Bird said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I don’t know if she’s been with the actual mailman.”
“Jesus.”
“Can you imagine if Nana or Pop cheated?”
“It would be a bloodbath.”
“At least the bloodbath would be somewhere else if Nana cheated,” Bird joked. “Pop would kill the guy… Nana would kill Pop.”
“Ain’t that the truth.”
“Was Mom like that?” Bird asked nonchalantly. His eyes were on the paper in front of him like it didn’t matter, but I knew it did. We’d only seen our mom a few times since she’d taken off and never more than a couple days at a time. Bird barely remembered what life with her had been like.
“No.” I shook my head. “Mom was never in a serious enough relationship for it to be considered cheating.”
“Really?”
“There was one guy that she was with for a while,” I replied, thinking back. “But he eventually bailed. I don’t think she ever cheated on him, though. But I was pretty young, so who knows.”
“I don’t get that,” Bird said, shaking his head. “If you wanna be with someone then you be with them. Cheating is just stupid. If you want to be with someone else then cut the person you’re with loose first.”
“I agree,” I replied, dropping down onto a kitchen chair. “Adult relationships are complicated as fuck, though.”
“It’s basic human decency,” he said flatly.
“Fair enough.” I smiled at him. Sometimes I could almost forget that he was only eleven. Firebird was an old soul… with the mouth of a long-haul trucker.
“So why aren’t you hanging out with Rumi tonight?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged like it was no big deal even though I’d checked my phone twice since I walked in the door. “I haven’t heard from him.”
“That blows.”
“Yeah, kind of. It’s cool, though. I don’t mind hanging with you.”
“Who said I want to hang with you?” he asked, laughing when I kicked him under the table.
“You love hanging with me,” I argued, kicking him again. “I’m your super awesome big sister and you love me.”
“You’re boring as hell and I pity you,” he countered with fake pity, howling with laughter when I lunged for him. “Fine! Fine! Let’s watch a movie or something.”
“You pick one,” I said, stuffing the last of my pizza into my mouth. “I’m going to change.”
“We’re not watching a girly movie,” he called as I headed toward my room. “No sex scenes! It’s weird.”
I snorted and then coughed, choking on the pizza in my mouth until my eyes watered.
Half an hour later, I was rolled up in my blanket like a burrito laying on the couch watching some weird sci-fi movie Bird had chosen. At that point I’d given up on hearing from Rumi, but the later it got, the more irritated I became that he hadn’t even texted me to apologize for standing me up. By the time I fell asleep halfway through the second movie, I was furious and Rumi was an asshole.
The silver lining to the whole being stood up situation was that I actually got a good night’s rest and woke up before my alarm the next morning. I was working at the pancake house, which honestly was the easier of my two jobs because I just got to greet people and bring them to their seats. Plus, I had time to shower, do my hair and makeup, which didn’t happen very often. It was shaping up to be a pretty good day even though I was still super pissed at Rumi.
I was smiling when Rumi’s older brother Micky came into the restaurant that morning, but it quickly turned into gaping like an idiot when he introduced me to the toddler son that I hadn’t even known existed. I didn’t remember most of the interaction later because I’d been so surprised and seriously fucking confused. I just kept peeking at them around the corner after I’d seated them wondering what the fuck was going on. I remembered Emilia vaguely from when we were kids, but I hadn’t really ever been around her. When she and Micky had been dating, they’d kept to themselves a lot. During that period, Rumi and I hadn’t been spending much time together either, because I’d gone to a different high school. I recognized her, though, and I remembered that Rumi had said she was sweet until she’d disappeared with her parents when we were sixteen.
The minute I got off work, I grabbed my phone and hurried to my car, calling Rumi on the way.