"Whose car is that in our space?" I asked spotting Sissy on the living room couch as I came in the door. She glanced up from her phone and replied, "Taylor bought me a car." My eyes nearly bugged out of my head, and I dropped my wallet and keys on the shelf by the door.
"Are you serious?" I said and she nodded saying, "Apparently, Taylor doesn't think his number one fan ought to be riding the train or some smelly bus to and from school." I may have been imagining it, but I could have sworn she sounded a little bitter.
"So, Taylor bought you a car so that you could take Octavia to and from school?" I asked just to clarify. She grimaced and retorted, "Yes, isn't so sweet you could vomit?" I smiled sweetly and leaned over the back of the couch saying, "You always told me that envy was an ugly emotion, dear sister." I reached around her and squeezed her face between my thumbs and fingers teasing, "You also told me it gives you wrinkles." She smacked my hand away and I laughed exclaiming, "Don't be bitter, Sis, this is great. I was so tired of being a one car family." She rolled her eyes and turned back to her phone.
I laughed again and kicked off my shoes asking, "Where is Octavia anyway?" She pointed towards the kitchen, and I shook my head still smiling to myself. I made my way into the kitchen and found Octavia sitting at the counter scribbling on a piece of paper.
"You still doing homework?" I asked glancing at the oven clock. It was nearly half past six. She shook her head and replied, "I'm making a grocery list. If I'm going to live here, we need some human food and as good as it is, I can't keep eating take out." I nodded and said, "Good idea." I opened the fridge and frowned. Margarita mix, two sad, slightly wrinkled limes and the remains of last night's Japanese take out. The pantry boasted a similar situation, plus several boxes of tea bags.
"I'll ask Sissy to go out tomorrow. I don't think we'll make it to the weekend," I said, and Octavia nodded finishing the list and handing it to me. I looked it over and added a few household items we were in desperate need of and pinned it to the refrigerator with a magnet.
"I talked to Niki today," I said moving aside as Octavia opened the fridge to retrieve her leftovers. She dumped it into a microwave safe bowl and popped it in the microwave. She then turned to me and asked, "What did he say?" I sat down at the counter and replied, "He said he would try and convince your aunt to give you up without a fight." She smiled and did a little hop clapping her hands.
"He also said he would make arrangements to move back to Dillon, Montana," I continued. She began to clap again then quickly stopped asking, "Why don't you seem happy?"
"Dillon is like over two-thousand miles away from here," I replied, and she nodded knowingly.
"You like him," she said. I wriggled in my chair and whined, "I've tried not to, but he's just--he's so--ugh! I just wanna squish his cute little face." I raised my hands as if to do just that and Octavia laughed.
"You know what would be great?" she signed, and I looked at her. "It would be great if Niki moved into my old apartment. I think it's still empty. He could move in under the pretense of keeping an eye on me. It might make Charlotte more likely to let the both of us go. Then we would both be out of harm's way and we'd both be close to you. And it might help our case with social services to have an adult blood relative nearby. If all else failed, he could become my guardian. Which would be cool because there's no way he would prevent us from hanging out."
I stared at her for a long moment before exclaiming, "Octavia, that's brilliant! Text him right now." She grinned and said, "I could just give his number to you." I thought about it before shaking my head and saying, "No, it will be more persuasive coming from you." She rolled her eyes and signed, "Fine."
She snatched the food from the microwave and sat down at the counter taking out her phone. I felt anxiety twist in my chest, and I stood up saying, "I'm going to shower and change. You let me know what he says." She nodded and waved her hand at me stabbing at her food with one hand and her phone with the other.
I returned twenty minutes later to find Octavia still sitting at the kitchen counter. She had finished her food and was now furiously typing on her phone. I popped up behind her and asked, "Any luck?" She sighed and set her phone down saying, "Nikolai thinks it's a great idea. Celeste and Augie think it's a great idea. They don't want their brother moving two thousand miles away. I refuse to speak to Charlotte so Niki's going back and forth between us."
She shook her head and picked her phone back up as it buzzed. She typed up a quick message and set it back down signing, "She seems more open to this idea than the one where Niki moves back to Montana, but she keeps asking why Niki wants to move at all. He keeps giving superficial reasons like needing his own space and being a grown man blah blah. He should just tell her."
"I agree, but not there," I said with a frown. "I wish we had gotten to him before he mentioned Montana at all. Then he could act like moving here was for their benefit instead of his." Octavia nodded glumly before typing one final message.
OCTAVIA: I'm done with this conversation. You two argue amongst yourselves. I'm going to bed. Goodnight.
She put her phone on silent and stuffed it in her school bag which was hanging off the back of the bar stool. She looked at me and asked, "Do you save take-out containers?" I laughed and shook my head replying, "Sissy thinks its tacky. We recycle them." She nodded and rinsed out the plastic containers before chucking them in the recycle bin.