Ilayinbedlater that night playing over several things in my head.
The most recent, how Finn ended up in my room. Us watching a whole movie together and not arguing once.
Okay, so that wasn’t the entire truth, but we were only human.
It was also not my fault. I didn’t know how strongly Finn felt about plain buttered popcorn versus the caramel corn I’d brought up. Regaining my appetite when we got back home.
It worked out in the end. Justifying it by telling him half-naked boys were not allowed in my room and shoving him off my bed.
Jumping up in a huff, he left. Coming back seconds later wearing a shirt with a cartoon muffin with the word ‘stud’ above it. His smile, megawatt.
“You’re annoying.”
“You’re adopted,” he deadpans. Stealing the bowl of caramel corn from my lap, anyway, eating the rest.
I roll my eyes. Technically he wasn’t right, but he wasn’t wrong either. My life was a clustered mess.
My nose scrunches, getting a whiff of his belch. “Are all boys disgusting, or did I get lucky?”
“Wow, first annoying and now disgusting. Using your adjectives tonight, lil’ sis.”
My face contorted, swatting his finger away when he pokes at my nose. “I’m three months older than you!”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re tinycompared to me.” Finn enunciates by pinching his thumb and pointer fingers together. “It’s like you’re the fun-size candy bar and I’m—”
“The shareable size?” I ask coyly.
“I was going to say, king,” he answers, sounding offended. His grin turning sly.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“And you don’t have a sense of humor,” he complains. Shooting me a look, rubbing at where I flicked a kernel at his forehead, barely missing his eye.
I shrug. He deserved it.
“This is the thanks I get for watching a movie with you tonight. Insultsanda bruised forehead.”
“I have a great sense of humor,” I defend, scoffing. “It was a kernel, not a pellet from a BB gun. You’ll survive.”
I could hear explosions and tires screeching but if you were to ask me what was going on in the movie, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. Too busy laughing at the small red welt pulsating on Finn’s forehead.
“Whoever told you, you have a good sense of humor was lying.”
I chuck my pillow at his head. It misses but at least he pauses from staring at himself in the mirror for half a second. I swear he used that thing more than I did.
“You need to ask Cole for help on your shot, I swear he never misses a pass,” he jeers, but then the room grows tense. The events sinking back in as slow as quicksand.
Gaining the courage to ask the words. I had to know. “Where did Cole go when he left?”
Sighing, he picks up the pillow, joining me back on the bed.
He knew. He had to have, those two are as close as they come.
Any affection Finn had earlier rolled into remorse. The corners of his mouth crinkling. My chest lifted and fell, waiting.
Cole’s footsteps are like loaded gunfire at an open range when he’d stormed out the house. Leaving without a backward thought.
“He went to see his mom,” he says quietly, breaking the silence.