Eenie Meenie Minie Mo

Chapter Twenty-Six

The next few weeks of school were…..well, to be brutally honest, hell. It wasn’t in the ways you’d think, though. Leander kept his distance, although I still received humorous glances from him or his friends on occasion. Sawyer received glares, to which he was much flattered.

After the whole punching-Leander-in-the-face-in-front-of-everyone incident, Sawyer just kind of acted like nothing happened……to me, anyway. In front of everyone else, he was a smug little bastard. But you kind of couldn’t blame him, really.

Mom and Alaric were officially off their break. Apparently the past few dates they’d been going on had been successful in rekindling their…..fire.

None of these, strangely, was what made my days hellish.

No, the really horrific thing was the fact that Mom and I were getting our lives back together while Jason and Kaitlyn were just lounging around the house doing nothing. College didn’t start until the first week of September, and they fully planned on staying that long. Why? Oh, because they decided to get married here. In Tennessee. As if my life wasn’t in freaking shambles to begin with.

Oh, and the other thing? Leander had a girlfriend now. A real one, apparently. According to Maddie—not that I asked, or anything—they were an on-again-off-again type of deal. They were currently on. It was the same blonde with big boobs I’d seen him with a long time ago.

Her name was Cassie Prim. She was my age. On closer inspection, I could see she had blue eyes. Pretty ones, too. The kind you just have to glare at in absolute envy. She could wear any eye shadow she wanted and those eyes would still pop. I think that was what made me hate her. Not that she was with Leander. I could really care less who he dated. From the sounds of it, the two were a freaking match made in heaven. Whores.

Eventually, it became known to all that I was sulking and trying to blow Leander’s brain up with my mind. To deter my less than moral ambitions toward my neighbor, Sawyer brought me over to his house. I couldn’t say with absolute certainty that I’d ever actually been inside his house.

Most the houses in the neighborhood looked the same. Sawyer’s was no different. Yet somehow it felt different. It smelled amazing—cool and minty with a hint of fresh baked goods. To say the place was spotless would be an extreme understatement. I felt like I was dirtying up the place simply by my presence.

"Wow," I muttered, gazing around the stylishly fashioned place in awe. "This is really something."

"Until you see my room," Sawyer grunted.

I snorted. "I’ll bet even your room is freakishly clean."

"Mom," Sawyer said suddenly. "Hey, this is Kodi."

I looked sharply to my left to see the woman Sawyer was speaking to. I was surprised to see her son looked nothing like her. Her hair, pulled back in a loose bun, was curly and ginger, her eyes a sparkling brown. She was blessedly short, just about my size, amazingly. Tied around her slight frame and sky blue sundress was a dirty black apron, to which she wiped her hands furiously on before shaking mine.

"Hello," she greeted in a smooth British accent. "It’s so nice to finally meet you, dear! Ethan just adores you, you know."

"Mum," Sawyer grumbled. His neck had gone a bit red.

I hid a giggle under my breath. "Nice to meet you, too, Mrs……Sawyer…." It was weird, using her last name when that was what I called her son all the time.

She waved me off. "Oh, do call me Bridget. I just hate formalities, don’t you?"

I nodded in agreement. "Definitely."