We sit down on the egg chairs and get comfortable while going over everything and working out the best reading orders for all the new stuff coming in. I mean, did Casey and I just become friends? I have no idea but I think I like it.
“Can I ask you something?” I question, leaning back into the egg chair and looking over at her.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“What’s the deal with you guys and Colton?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know … there’s just this huge divide between you all and it’s kinda sad. I know if you guys gave him the chance, he’d be more than happy to start building the relationship between you. I mean, I don’t have sisters but I have more than enough family in the Widows and I don’t know if I could survive with that kind of break between us.”
Casey shrugs her shoulders and seems to wander off inside her mind before finally letting out a sigh. “I don’t know. We moved away, or at least, Mom took us away when we were fourteen. Colton came with us originally but Dad came and forced him back here, and that was just it. We never saw each other and just kept growing apart. Mom never even attempted to reach out to him after that. She took it as some kind of personal attack, but he was just a kid. It wasn’t his responsibility to be the parent. Mom failed there, but don’t tell her I said that. She’d tear me a new asshole.”
I scoff and try to smother a laugh.
Casey continues. “Colton’s done a lot of growing in the last few years. I guess ... I don’t know … things just got worse from there. Everyone grew hostile and the disconnect between us just got bigger. Cora and I would speak to Colton every now and then but it wasn’t anything deep just, ‘Hey, how are you?’ You know, that kind of stuff.”
I nod and feel a heaviness come over me. “I think he’d actually like to get to know you both as adults now. I mean, I can't exactly speak for him. We haven’t actually discussed it or anything, but what big brother wouldn’t want his baby sisters in his life?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “I mean, I know that I miss having that same relationship that we used to have. Cora has a slightly different view on it, but I feel like she could come around. She’s so bitter. She’s a lot like Mom.”
“No shit,” I laugh. “The apple didn’t fall far from that tree.”
“Yeah … about that,” she says with a cringe. “I’m kinda over the fighting. I'm not exactly a grudge holder like that, so if you’re down with being cool, then I am too.”
I raise a brow. “Yeah?” I question. “I don’t think your sister feels the same.”
“No, she doesn’t and she’d kill me and instantly accuse me of jumping ship, but I can see how much you mean to Colton and if I’m going to have any chance of having him in my life, then I need to get on board the Ocean train. Though, turns out it's not actually that bad. I didn’t realize we would have so much in common.”
“To be honest, I really thought that there wouldn’t be anything under the sun that we would have in common but it’s nice to know that we do.”
“Exactly,” she says with a beaming smile before glancing down at her book and pulling her feet up under herself. “Now shut up, I’ve been dying to read this series.”
“Right back at ya,” I grin, resting back into my egg chair with an odd smile. I can’t exactly say that becoming friends with Casey Carrington was on my agenda today, but a part of me is actually kind of happy about it, unless it’s a trap, of course, but something tells me it was real, and for some reason, I’m inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt.
With that in mind, I open the book to page one and lose myself in one of the best stories ever told.Chapter 15I walk into the main house early on Tuesday morning, feeling a million times better. Maybe Mom was onto something about reading a book. I didn’t exactly get through much of it after spending a good portion of my afternoon hanging out and talking books with Casey, but the little time to myself where I could get lost in another world helped to put things into perspective.
Nic fucked up and that’s on him. It’s in the past and while he has a long road ahead of him to earn my forgiveness, there's no point spending my time worrying and hurting over it.
It’s time to worry about the more important things, like getting good grades, and being the first person on either side of my family to go to college. I can do it. I know I can.