When I let Cameron out of the house two hours later, my homework was still unfinished and we hadn't gotten to any tutoring, but I didn't care. He hugged me goodbye carefully, his lips gently brushing my forehead, and then dropped down the porch steps and out into the driveway.
"What was that all about?"
I whirled around and found Clare standing in the foyer, her arms crossed. She looked as if she were about to scold me.
"Sorry?" I asked her, forcing myself to bite back a smile as I went into the living room and started cleaning up the few books I'd strewn across the floor.
Clare watched me pointedly as I put all my pencils in my pencil bag and then zipped it up. "Cameron didn't tutor you today."
"So?"
When I looked up at her, I saw that her frown had deepened until there were actual creases on her forehead. Just as I was about to ask her what her problem was, she snapped, "I think it was sort of unproductive that you spent two and a half hours cuddling and kissing instead of studying, or doing paperwork, or something."
My temper flared at the thought of my little sister telling me what to do. "Excuse me for having a life," I snapped, tossing my pencil bag into my backpack and beginning to gather up all my papers. "I'm sorry if I can't act like a perfect mother figure every second of the day. I actually deserve to be a teenager once in a great while, you know."
"You said Cameron was here to tutor you. Can't he leave now that that's clearly not what he's doing anymore?"
"Why do you hate him?" I demanded, rounding on her. "You used to adore him. He's helped us out of a lot of tight spots, and now I think I might actually have feelings for him. The least you could do is be supportive."
Clare was acting twelve instead of nine, and I knew then that she'd been forced to grow up too fast, just like me. Girls her age shouldn't have had to worry about things like this. She should have been engrossed in her homework or playing a game, not arguing with her older sister about her relationships.
Instead of yelling at me like I expected her to-like anyone would have expected any nine-year-old to-she just sighed and said huffily, "He doesn't need to bring his perfect, problem-less life into our house and start snooping. It doesn't help that all you do is lie to him, either. 'Cameron, our parents our on vacation.' 'Cameron, they're on a business trip. They'll be back soon.' Blah, blah, blah."
She put her hands on her hips, her rant clearly not over. "All you ever do is lie to him, and then you're all 'Cameron, I'm sorry. Let's kiss and make it all better and-'"
"Enough!" I yelled, throwing my hands up in the air. "You want me to be your mother? Fine. Get up to your room and go to bed, and don't come down here until morning. Clear?"
"I..." she spluttered, but I interrupted her.
"Up to your room, now." I growled. "You can't have it both ways. Either I'm your mother or your sister."
Just as she rolled her eyes and stormed off, her stomping shaking the frame of the house, Maddie poked her head around the corner.
"Is it over?" she asked, walking over to me with her thumb in her mouth. I quickly pulled her arm away, trying to break the habit-she was much too old for sucking her thumb.
"Yes," I said. I pulled her into my lap and she buried her face in my chest. "It's all over."
I smoothed down her dark brown hair, my heart still pounding from my evening with Cameron and then the fight with Clare. Why couldn't my sister be happy for me? She expected way too much of me if she thought I'd just pick up groceries and cart them to daycare day after day without having my own life. I'd made a lot of sacrifices since I'd become their caregiver, but I wasn't willing to give up my future.
When Maddie fell asleep, I carried her up to her room and tucked her in. Clare had rolled over so that her back was to me, and she didn't acknowledge me when I walked inside.
"Good night," I said pointedly, but she didn't respond. I rolled my eyes and left the room, flicking off the lights on my way out.
Sisters were so unbearable sometimes-especially when they got all in my business and pretended to know what was best for me. I smiled to myself at the irony as I sat down at my desk and pulled out my homework. I hadn't looked at Clare and Maddie wholly as my sisters since Dad had left; they'd almost become my daughters. I wondered which way was better, but my brain hurt just thinking about it.
I pulled out The Great Gatsby and picked up where I left off, wondering what had happened to my peaceful little life.
~*~*~
I'd thought the days when multiple people asked me to sit lunch with them were over after my freshman years of cheerleading, but when both Ashley and Cameron practically begged for me to sit at their tables Tuesday afternoon, it wasn't a tough choice.
"I'm sorry," I told Ashley, watching as her hopeful expression fell. "I'm just...going to eat over there today, okay?"
In reality, I didn't know why she was so upset. It wasn't like I ever contributed to the lunch conversations; I usually just stared into space or pretended to be fascinated with my food.
"Oh yes," she quipped, sticking her nose in the air as if she didn't care. However, given that I'd known her for years, I knew she was trying to hide her disappointment. "Go sit over with Cameron and his senior friends. I guess you're too good for us now."
I wanted to snap back at her, but I just rolled my eyes and grabbed my things to move. Why was it that I was fighting with everyone lately?
When I sat down at Cameron's table, I was greeted by blank stares by four out of five of the occupants. Cameron cleared his throat and said, "Um, this is Evelyn. I thought she might like to sit with us today."
"Hi." I raised my hand awkwardly in a half-wave.
I recognized most of the group from the soccer posse, and the rest were faces I remembered from my freshman year. I doubted anyone recognized me, though.
"Oh, Evelyn!" exclaimed a tall guy with curly blonde hair. He was towering over me even though he was sitting. "I didn't even know it was you. I thought you had black hair."
I'd completely forgotten that I'd dyed my hair black in ninth grade, just to experiment. It had gone back to its natural color by now. "Um, no," I said. "I'm blonde."
The curly-haired boy introduced himself as Kyle, and the other three seated at the table turned out to be Melissa, Jade, andTroy.
My eyes settled onTroyfor a moment, and I remembered the enormous crush I used to have on him-how his brown eyes used to make me swoon. Now, he actually looked a little too rugged for my taste: unshaven and burly, with long floppy hair.
I busied myself with eating my grilled cheese, which was not half as good as I'd thought it would be, while I watched the seniors around me with a definite sense of deflation. I'd expected sitting with Cameron and his senior friends to at least be a little bit of fun, but it turned out they were enjoying themselves without me.
Cameron was trying to balance his spoon on top of his soda bottle, the most adorable of perplexed expressions on his face, while Melissa fixed her coffee-brown hair while looking at herself in her phone's reflection. Jade and Troy, who I took to be a couple, were talking in low tones, snuggled extremely close together, while Kyle was eating his chicken and watching everyone with an expression of extreme amusement.
Just as I Cameron was about to successfully balance his spoon, I poked his soda bottle so that it scooted a few centimeters to one side. He turned to glare at me, but there was a small smirk playing at the corner of his lips.
"You going to eat that?" he asked, pointing to the rest of my grilled cheese.
I shoved my sandwich at him and he gulped the entire thing down in three bites. For a book lover and nerd-slash-athlete, he sure had an appetite. I guessed even boys who sat in bed on Saturday mornings with adorably nerdy glasses reading books still had a typical guy side.
While I popped my grapes into my mouth one by one, savoring the sweet taste (until I accidentally ate a sour one), Kyle tried to make conversation with me. It was extremely obvious by the way his eyes kept flicking to the table beside us that he had a crush on Ashley, knew I was friends with Ashley, and was thus trying to become friends with me.
"You know," I finally said, biting down on the last grape with a satisfying crunch, "She doesn't have a date to prom yet. You should just ask her."
Kyle's eyes widened, but he scratched the back of his neck thoughtfully.
"I mean if you really like her, it's worth a shot, isn't it?"
Maybe I was being selfish, but I half wanted Ashley to go to prom with Kyle so she would get off my case about Cameron.
Kyle's eyebrows furrowed together and he was probably about to explain how that was an awful idea, but Cameron interrupted him. "Go for it, man," he said.
"And who are you taking to prom?" Kyle snapped back.
I noticed Cameron's eyes flickered to me for the briefest of seconds, which made me want to squirm in my seat excitedly, before he shrugged. "It's only March," he said. "I'll figure something out. Who says I have to go with anyone, anyway?"
My spirits deflated so abruptly it was as if someone had reached inside me with a pin and popped a balloon.
"That's right." Troy piped up in the conversation long enough to say, "Cameron's single for life, Kyle, remember? Let's not bother him about girls."
He was clearly being sarcastic with his last remark, and I was about to defend Cameron before he reached under the table and squeezed my hand, shaking his head slightly. His blue eyes were sparkling.
Smiling, I squeezed his fingers back and then went back to my food, not letting go.
A/N: Apologies for the short chapter...anyway, keep up the comments and love!