“Come on. I have to pick up Chrissy.”
Abe and I leave to pick up my sister, and we go back to Oak Hills. Abe walks home from our place, and Chrissy and I go inside.
“Cammy is working until six today,” I say.
“Yeah, she told me this morning.”
“How are you doing?” I ask as she drops her bag onto the floor and scoots into her bed.
“Fine. Why?”
“Just wondering. So, uh, we’re going shopping tomorrow.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “For what?”
“For… all the new furniture for our new apartment.”
She gasps, and I hold my hands up. “Don’t get too excited.”
She growls and reaches over to whack me. “Stop telling me to not get excited. I’mfine.”
“Chrissy—”
“No, Cass. Seriously, you need to stop. I’m fine. Stop making me feel weird about being epileptic.”
“I’m not—I didn’t—”
“What? Didn’t mean it? Yeah, no one ever does.”
She turns on her side, giving me her back.
“Chrissy—” I sigh and kneel beside her bed. “I’m sorry, okay? I won’t do it any more, I promise, but I will not stop worrying about you or caring about you or making sure you’re safe. I don’t want to make you feel weird, but I do worry all the time,and I can’t be sorry for that, but I will try to change my line of thinking.” I pause a moment, then finish saying what I wanted to say earlier. “I was hoping you’d stay home from school tomorrow to shop.”
She slowly turns to face me, a small smile sneaking across her face.
“You’re going to let me skip?”
I shrug. “Sure, why not? I’m not your mom.”
She lunges for me, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Best big brother ever.”
I hug her back and hope I can live up to that title for the rest of my life.
“We should stay here tonight,” Chrissy says as she looks around her empty room.
“No, Chrissy, we—”
“I agree,” Cammy adds.
“Huh?”
Cammy moves to stand beside Chrissy. They look so much alike, you can tell they are sisters without knowing a damn thing. And they’re both so beautiful, and at the age that boys are going to be a pain in my ass and—
“Sleeping on the floor would be well worth being away from the witch,” Cammy says, interrupting my big-brother thoughts. “We can bring pillows and blankets. Actually, we could go buy that stuffnow. We know what sizes our beds are.”
“We could bring our mattresses here,” Chrissy suggests.
“I am not bringing those nasty mattresses here.”