Mia Hill. College bound with an athletic scholarship. A go-getter with big dreams and a fully thought out plan to make sure they come true.
But with her father's release from prison looming and the inevitable stresses of adulting, everything she wa...
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My small car has never felt smaller than it does right now as we try to stuff June and all her luggage and noise into it.
"You ever hear of a thing called a duffle bag?" I ask, giving her suitcase a shove into my trunk.
It fits fine. I just like giving her a hard time. And I do think a suitcase is a bit much for a weekend trip to UCLA. How much could she possibly need for a two night stay?
"Shut up, Gray." June rolls her eyes.
I roll mine right back. "Shut up, June."
"Play nice, children," Mia intervenes. She makes a show of holding up the grocery bag full of gas station goodies we stopped for on the way to Cal Poly. "Or you won't get any snacks on the road."
"Yes, maam," June and I say at the same time.
Taking the long way around my Hellcat to the driver's side, I pass Mia as she stands at the passenger door.
"You sure about that job in criminal justice, Tink?" I throw her a smirk. "You sounded just like my kindergarten teacher just now."
She shrugs. "I get it from my mom."
"I thought you got your knack for arguing from your mom. Isn't she a lawyer?"
"She was a teacher first," she explains. "But let's face it, any lawyer vibes I caught from her might also be useful in dealing with the two of you someday." Her gaze flits over to June and then back to me, amusement curving onto her lips. "Then again, criminal justice might be best after all."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, following her previous eyeline to June. And what the actual fuck? She's drawing on the back window of my car with a marker. A marker that better come off easily. "June, what the hell are you doing?"
"Writing I'm not as cool as my car on the back of your car," she says like it's nothing.
Mia snort laughs and I shoot her a look before turning my attention back to June.
"Give me that marker and get in the car."
June promptly steps back, inspecting her work. "Chill out, it'll come right off."
"Yeah, it better," I mumble as I climb into the driver's seat," when you clean it off."
The girls file into the backseat, June with her satisfied smirk and Mia with her cute indifference.
I can't help noticing how, before we became whatever it is we've become, I definitely would have gotten more than just a snort laugh from her.
If this was last summer, she probably would have laughed it up and cheered on June's vandalism, anything to get on my nerves. But now, she's confiscated the marker from my cousin, inspecting it carefully as we get on the road.
