Chapter Thirty-One
Matt
Rolling over, my arm extended to El to tuck her closer to me, but when it hit the mattress, my eyes popped open.
El’s half of the bed was empty, cold even, as if she hadn’t been laying there for quite some time.
Where could my girlfriend be?
I didn’t have any texts or calls from her, nothing to suggest she had to leave in a rush.
Two female voices bounced off the walls as I sauntered down the hall. The TV was turned down low when I found El standing in the living room, eating a banana, nodding to an unknown ghost before she finally came into view.
My sister.
I rubbed at my eyes, voice gravelly. “It’s nine in the morning. What are you doing here?”
Jade stiffened, as if on guard. “I was at a party down the street last night. My phone was about to die, so I just came here.” Her answer came out fluently, almost like it’d been rehearsed, but I still didn’t bother questioning it.
We didn’t go to bed until one-thirty. She must’ve been out late as hell. “How’d you get in?”
“You gave me a key, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” I lightly pushed Jade aside, sitting on the couch beside her.
“Hey!”
“Sorry,” I mumbled through a lazy smile. “You were sitting right in the middle.”
“The other couch was entirely open.”
“Yeah, but that one doesn’t directly face the TV.” Leaning back, I caught a glimpse of El, chewing in slow motion. Her eyes flitted around the room like she wanted to look anywhere other than at us. She hadn’t said a single word either. No smiling “Good morning” or “How’d you sleep?”. Just silence.
I wanted to ask if something was wrong, but I wasn’t going to do it in front of Jade.
A mixture of annoyance and disgust poured from my sister. “Can you go put a shirt on?” she grimaced. “I don’t want to see you naked.”
I rolled my eyes. She pulled her knees to her chest, clutching her hands over her leggings. She still looked repulsed, and as her brother, annoying her was one of my favorite pastimes.
When I noticed the grey hockey shirt she must’ve stolen from my room, I almost gave her shit for it, but in all honesty, I didn’t really care that much.
What I did care about, on the other hand, was that the bun atop her head gave me a perfect view to the discoloration sitting on the side of her neck.
“What the hell is on your neck?” I spat.
Jade hesitated, her breaths turning ragged. “What are you talking about?”
“Is that a fucking hickey?”
Face paling, she tore at her hair, all for the sake of bringing it down.
I stood, feeling the vile that was threatening to come up as I exited the room. “Actually, don’t answer that.”
Ew. Ew. Ew.
I locked myself in my room. The boys wouldn’t have been very happy with me if I projectile vomited all over the living room.
When I sat on my bed, giving nothing but a single, deep breath, a sense of pride washed over me.
A typical reaction of mine would’ve been demanding to know who the guy was and then going through the Cedar U grapevine just to find out where he lived so I could kick his ass.
But lately, I’d been doing well handling my anger. Truly impressing myself.
I was starting to have faith in myself. Maybe I didn’t have to be a monster forever.
Once I felt composed and could stomach the idea of sitting near my baby sister while she had a hickey on her fucking neck, I walked back out to the living room.