Nightlife ✓

26 | home

I just had to move past it.

I put my head into my pillow and screamed in frustration.

"Young love," Riley sang amusedly, her voice way too chirpy for the morning-after. "I sure don't miss that."

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Three days later, I recounted the hectic events of that weekend—SciBall and Callum's party—to my older sister Olly.

"Hold on, but you didn't kiss?"

Despite all Mom's complaining about how she missed me and how she couldn't wait to see me, Olly was the only one who'd come to pick me up from the airport. My parents were working, Thomas was out of state and Kevin was—

Kevin.

I knew without a doubt he would rather watch YouTube than stand in my arrival party. Let's just say, he showed his affection in unconventional ways.

Olly and I slid out of Mom's car after she'd parked on the side of the street. I grunted with effort as I brought my suitcase out of the trunk and answered, "No, one of my friends interrupted."

I followed my sister as she walked into the lobby of the apartment building where we'd grown up.

"Aw, no," Olly whined sympathetically. She punched the elevator button once I'd hefted my suitcase clear of the threshold. "And you didn't kiss him at his apartment either?"

"He'd literally thrown up half an hour ago. And he was asleep."

"K-Dog!" Kevin shouted when Olly and I stepped through the front door.

He had his gaming headphones looped around his neck, while he prepared dinner in the kitchen. As soon as Mom and Dad came home, we could all, bar Tommy, sit down and eat together like when we were all crammed under one roof. I was so hungry I could hardly wait.

"K-Dog!" I shouted back. Kev didn't like to share photos of himself, so this was the first time I'd seen his face and hair in months. "You need to cut your hair. You're starting to look—"

"—like a K-Pop idol? Ravishing?" he asked seriously, flipping his shaggy locks. "Disastrously handsome?"

"Yeah. Sure. That's totally what I was going to say," I rolled my eyes. I stepped out of my sneakers and placed them on the shoe rack by the front door, sliding my feet into my worn plastic slippers. "When's Mom getting off work?"

"Four. She should be home soon," Olly answered me.

Olly shrugged her jacket off and hooked it over one of the chairs around the dinner table. Then she raised her eyebrows suggestively at me, eager to hear more of my romantic strife. Because of our large age gap, I'd grown up closer with my brothers.

We'd never had many chances for girl talk, but she seemed to want to make the most of the ones that arose now.

"We'll talk in your room?"

Kev perked up. "Ooh, what's this? Med school drama? Did you meet your McDreamy?"

"No, we're going to discuss how—now that Kris is home—our menstrual cycles would finally sync up and we can save time on buying pads," Olly smiled sweetly. "It's economical."

"Blergh," Kev mock-retched over the steaming, sizzling wok. "Why? Why, Olly? You haven't visited home for weeks and now you feel the need to torture me like that?"