Page 31 of Loathe at First Sight

“Okay, I guess. Except Mom took my phone.” She turns around to stare daggers through Michelle.

Without looking up from her own phone, Michelle says, “I told you to get your Spanish grade up, or your phone was mine. Don’t make me seem like the bad guy here.”

Eve turns back around to me to roll her eyes. My niece not doing well in a class is highly unusual. She loves school.

At least she used to.

Maybe more has changed around here than I realized.

Mom calls out from the kitchen, “Eve, honey, will you come in and set the table?”

Without any arguments, the teenager heads in to help. Once she’s gone, I walk over to where Michelle is sitting on the couch.

“Hey, you,” I say with a small smile.

She doesn’t take her eyes off her phone. “Hi.”

“How’s it going?”

“Fine.”

Man, this is more of a cold shoulder than I got from Mom. This whole thing is strange to me because back in the day, Michelle and I were inseparable. She was my best friend, and I was hers. She was the first one I told when I got into my dream college. And I was the first one she told when she was pregnant.

After I left, we stayed close for a while. But between me trying to do a full course load and then starting my own business and her trying to finish high school with a baby, life just got in the way.

Now that I’m back, I’d love for us to get back to how we used to be. Sure, Veronica and I have an amazing relationship, but I’d love to rekindle that same bond with Michelle.

Trying to break the ice a little, I ask, “So, Eve is struggling in Spanish, huh?”

“Something like that.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

That gets her to finally look at me. But the second her eyes hit mine, I want her to go back to staring at the phone. “Liz, let’s not act like you care.”

That cuts me like a knife. Maybe I haven’t been around much, but I still care deeply about her and about Eve. They’re family. And I plan to make damn sure that Michelle remembers that.

“What? Of course I—”

Before I can finish that sentence, Dylan comes walking through the front door with our youngest sister, Jo. Both of them walk over to give me big hugs and say their hellos.

My one-on-one with Michelle will have to wait.

“Hey, guys!” I greet.

Dylan gives me a hug, but I jokingly push him off. “I’ve already seen you. Let me see my baby sister.”

Jo furrows her eyebrows at me. “Baby? Really?”

“You’ll always be my baby sister.” I pinch her cheek. “Just look how cute you are.”

She looks less than impressed with me. I can’t help but laugh because out of all of the Lawson siblings, Jo is probably the most no-nonsense. She doesn’t take shit from anyone. When she was twelve years old, I remember watching her trying to fight a full-grown man because he bumped into her and didn’t say excuse me.

She may be petite, but man, she is nothing but fire and sarcasm wrapped in a small package. And she’s hilarious. By far, she’s the funniest one out of all of us.

The best part about Jo? She doesn’t hold any type of grudge against me. When she was born, I was twelve. I babysat her some when she was little, but when she came into her formative years, I was already out of the house. Since she was the youngest, I think she was just happy to have one less person to share a bathroom with.

She doesn’t seem to care that I’ve been gone. It’s just always been her normal.

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