Not a big deal? Mom would kill her. Then kill me. If not the other way.
“You and the guys did way worse than me, so I don’t want to hear it.”
“It doesn’t matter what I did or didn’t do,” I countered. “Smoking is a filthy habit.”
“So is sleeping with a bunch of girls, but that didn’t stop you.”
I glared at her for all of a moment, then blew out a breath. “You need to not believe everything you hear.”
“But that part is true,” Sis stated. “And I didn’t judge you, so maybe you could cut me a break.”
Gripping the steering wheel, I shook my head. She was fourteen going on forty. Putting the car in gear, I pulled out. It was still raining on and off. The temperatures had fallen off. It had only gotten up to the mid seventies during the day, and right now it was sixty and still dropping.
“You stink, and if you smoke that shit again, I’m not picking you up. That crap is gonna make the car smell.”
“You just got this car, and I’m hardly going to make it smell that bad.” She had no idea.
“Yeah, you tell Mom that when we get home.”
“Hmmph. She’s working late.”
Actually, no she wasn’t. Momthoughtshe had to work late, but she texted while I’d been out making deliveries that she was home. I’d told her I would still pick Trina up.
Unfortunately for Trina, Mom had a nose like a bloodhound. We’d barely walked inside when she sat up in her chair and glared. “Which of you two has been smoking?”
While she hadn’t focused on me, I raised my hands. “Not it. In fact, I’m gonna shower ’cause it’s all I can smell at the moment.”
“Thanks, Coop,” Sis said with a scowl.
“Trina!” Mom’s voice climbed into the red alert range, and I headed out of the line of fire. Trina needed to avoid that crap. But she and Mom were forever banging heads on some subjects. This was going to be another one.
I paused just inside the hallway heading toward my room and shower. Trina and I had to share a bathroom. Our apartment was laid out a lot like Frankie’s, only we had three bedrooms instead of just two.
“Trina,” Mom said with a sigh. “We’ve discussed this…”
Yeah, that was going to be an argument in three, two…
“Dammit, Mom. Why is everything I do put under a microscope? But Coop gets to do whatever he wants whenever he wants?”
“We are not talking about your brother,” Mom said. “We’re discussing you. This is not a matter of comparison or false equivalency.”
I swallowed a smile and continued to the bathroom. Trina always wanted to argue about what I got to do versus what she was allowed to, and she was forever pushing the envelope. If she kept this up, we’d end up having a visit from Dad.
Which was the point, I supposed. I barely saw him, and after he and Mom divorced, I was fine with it. Twisting the water on and letting it heat up, I stripped and checked my phone.
Two messages.
One from Jake. He was staying at Frankie’s tonight. It was Tuesday evening, and he didn’t have practice in the morning. He wanted to know if I was coming back.
The second was from Frankie.
Frankie:Just checking on you. My turn to ask, are you okay?
Tuesday had been a much betterday at school than Monday. For one, her mother hadn’t put on an appearance and we’d managed to avoid the Cheryl intercept again. I got it, Cheryl was a nice girl for the most part. A ditz, but a nice girl. Then again, she’d also been the one to give Frankie the water. While I didn’t want to think she had anything to do with it, I couldn’t escape the idea that she had been involved.
That made me want to punch her.
Not a healthy mental space to be in.