Take Me Home | ✔

Chapter Forty-Four

"She's more terrifying than you are," I retort. "Baby squirrel."

Vienna rolled her eyes, and maybe I was imagining it but she was looking a little redder than she was two seconds ago. "God, those showers in that Arkansas hotel rocked though," she said.

"Yeah, you needed one, really badly," I laughed.

"Is this Pick on Vienna day or something because I was not informed or emotionally prepared to be so attacked right now."

"Well you know what they say about guys when they pick on you..."

She froze like a statue, her eyes unmoving from my face. I guess she was trying to study me to see if I serious or not and I understood because I didn't even mean to let that slip out, it was by default. And when it was out in the open, I wanted to kick myself in the crotch for being so stupid.

"Uh..." she trailed off, and was about to open her mouth to say something else when suddenly Tessa came out of her room, with what looked like a hawk's nest on her head. She yawned loudly, stumbling into the halls like in a drunken stupor, but when she caught sight of Vienna and I in the bathroom doorframe, she froze. Then she backed away in her room slowly, one step at a time, but not before giving me a wink and a thumbs-up and shutting her door fast.

"I should probably go take a shower now," I told her quickly, my ears starting to get warm.

"And I should probably go help with breakfast," she nodded.

"Yeah, uh, you should," I nodded too, much too fast. She threw me a hasty smile before scuttling out of the halls and into her room again.

I sighed heavily before shutting the bathroom door, wanting to bang my head against it repeatedly for what I just said. Of course she acted weird, you dum dum, you just said that out of nowhere. I don't even know what came over me. Probably just crude stupidity.

It wasn't like we could just happen anyway. After the holidays are over, I go back to Denmark to finish my semester and Vienna goes back to Duke in North Carolina and will probably become the queen of volunteering. Two polar opposites sides of the world with an ocean in between to separate us for dramatic effect. And besides, I've been meaning to ask her about Eli, if she was with him, or not. Or at any time at all during the year I was gone. The odds aren't really stacked up in my favor right now.

I suddenly realized that the more I was starting to like the thought of being around Vienna a lot more, I was getting seriously dumb. 

* * * 

When I got downstairs, everyone else was already eating breakfast on the kitchen counter. Uncle Terrence was making fruit salad in the kitchen island, an arm around Angie's shoulder while she chopped up the fruit. Tessa was seated on the counter with Payton on her lap, nibbling on Reeses' Puffs and looking seriously pissed.  

I ran a hand through my still-damp hair, saying good morning to everyone and patting Tess on the head.

"Hey," she stared at me suspiciously. "Have you seen what happened to my Little Debbies? I can't find any anymore and I'm craving them like a pregnant lady." 

"You are a pregnant lady," Angie shot. 

A year ago, I would've expected Tess to throw a huge emotionally sensitive fit at how Angie was threatening to ruin her life, but I guess that they smoothed things over between them as step-daughter and step-mother because Tess just threw her head back and laughed. 

"But I'm serious Elliot," she frowned at me a split second later, staring me down intensely that I got chills. 

"Uh," I shot a glance at Vienna for moral support but she only shrugged and put her hands up in mock surrender, continuing to eat her cereal. "I don't know what happened to them. Sorry T."