Page 16 of Naughtying Up St. Nick

“Yeah. I wrote papers for her all through high school. I know I shouldn’t have, but my parents…” He trails off, and that knot in my stomach grows.

“They knew?”

“Yeah, I told them. But you know my mom had so many miscarriages before giving birth to Jacklyn. They weren’t even planning on having me. To be honest, I’m not sure they even wanted me.”

“Harlow…” I can’t even come up with words. My parents and I aren’t super close, but I know they love me. They never would’ve let someone use me like that.

“It’s not a big deal,” Harlow says with a shrug. “It was just papers.”

It’s so obvious from the tone of his voice that it wasn’t “just papers”.

“I know I shouldn’t still be angry about it because it was four years ago, but sometimes, it still digs at me.”

“Of course you can still be angry about it,” I say. “She’s not sorry, and she still thinks it was okay, right?”

He doesn’t respond, but his silence is answer enough.

“It’s perfectly reasonable to still be upset about that,” I say. “She’s your older sister. She was supposed to be looking out for you, not taking advantage of you and making everyone think you would do something like that.”

Saying that makes me wonder how different he was before that. Was he still in detention so frequently? Did he fight as much? How much of him changed from what his sister did?

Harlow clears his throat. “It’s not a big deal. It was a long time ago.”

“It wasn’t really. It was four years ago.” I wait as more thoughts flood my brain. “Wait, is that why you didn’t go to college with everyone else?”

“It’s probably part of the reason. Jacklyn and my parents told me I wouldn’t get into a college with the cheating thing on record, which I learned later wasn’t true.” He pauses, staring down at the car keys in his hand. “You know Jacklyn’s essay for her submissions were about overcoming the hardship of someone cheating off her in freshman year?”

Rage powers through my body like its own entity. What the hell is wrong with her? Who does something like that?

“It doesn’t matter,” Harlow continues. “I’m moving to California in a couple weeks, and she’ll be flying back to New York. Hopefully, I won’t have to see her again for a while.”

“You should do something,” I say. “Tell people what really happened.”

“Why? It’s not like it affects anything in my life now. It doesn’t prevent me from getting a job or going to college, apparently. I’m not interested in trying to get people to believe that my sister has been lying all this time.”

The injustice of the situation makes my blood boil. I want to do something, prove that Jacklyn isn’t as great as people think she is. But Harlow’s right; it won’t change anything, and it would upset him if I got involved.

So I swallow all of that down because it’s not what he needs right now. Instead, I reach out and lay my hand on top of his. “Well, I believe you. And I’m really glad you told me.”

Harlow glances down at our joined hands, and when he looks back up at me, there’s so much gratitude in his eyes. Almost like he thought maybe I wouldn’t believe him. I know he’s not upset about writing the papers—it’s who he wrote them for. That person who should’ve been on his side more than anyone else.

“Thanks,” he murmurs. And then he leans closer and kisses me. It’s soft and chaste compared to the other ones we’ve shared, but I like it just as much.

***

When Harlow drops me off at the house I’m renting for December, I go inside and find Min stretched out on her bed, reading on her tablet.

I flop down beside her, and she tosses me a look for jarring her.

I want to tell her what Harlow told me about his sister, but as I’m leveraging up on an elbow, I catch sight of an empty chocolate ice cream container on the nightstand, which means one thing.

“Your family called?” I ask.

Min follows my gaze to the nightstand, then scowls as if she’s mad at herself for letting me see that. “Yeah. My mom called to tell me Lina’s getting married.”

Her younger sister. I know Min and Lina were pretty close before Min went off to college, and all Min has told me is that Lina cut her off at the same time her parents and brother did. I’m guessing they were calling to let her know she wasn’t invited, but I wait to let her say it.

Min presses a hand to her forehead and rubs harshly, as if she can force the thoughts out of her head. “Lina wants me to be there, but my parents want me to lie to everyone and say I’m going to med school. Mom made it really clear she’s only doing this because Lina wants to invite me.”

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