Page 192 of The Sidekick

He looks thoughtful. “They don’t curse either.”

“Yeah,” I say with a soft sigh. I can never come up with a good cuss word when I need it.

“Your mom was strict?”

“Yes.” This time, the affirmation is firm.

His brows lower with concern. “Did she hit you?”

I look at him in confusion. “No? She made us stand and stare at walls until we couldn’t anymore.”

“We? You have siblings?” He asks with surprise.

My shoulders slump. “Kind of. He doesn’t talk to me anymore. They all disowned me for being a black sheep.”

He laughs like I told him a joke. I chew my lip and glance down at the keyboard.

“Wait. You’re serious?” His gapes in surprise again.

I shrug defensively and start typing again.

“You never talk about your family.” His thoughtful tone brings my attention back to him. He isn’t laughing anymore. Now he looks mad.

“I don’t like it. It makes me mad and sad. I don’t want to be that way. I like being happy. I miss it.”

I bite my lip at the last sentence. I feel like that was too personal to blurt out.

“I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t angry about something.”

His admission surprises me.

“You didn’t become a villain through tragedy? It was from birth?” That throws a lot of my hero/villain theories out the window.

“A villain?” He laughs and shakes his head.

“Yeah. You manipulate people all the time to get what you want.”

His frown comes back, and I wince.

“I try to fake being nice so people don’t run from me screaming. How horrible.” The deadpan tone has an undercurrent of anger that makes me swallow hard.

“That’s what I just said,” I mutter in confusion. “You want them to stay, so you manipulate your behavior to get it. You should just be yourself.”

“The only person I’m myself with is Max.”

“Uh-huh,” I sit up straight with a smile. “It’s perfect because he’s a jerk, and you don’t put up with it. You guys have a great relationship.”

He leans back with a thoughtful look.

“Don’t you think?” I ask warily as he stares without blinking. “I do. He plans out being a jerk to get maximum anger from you. I can’t understand how he lives like that, but to each their own. He falls into the brat category with cement shoes. But that’s what makes him Max. It’s easy to be a jerk to him because he can take it without being sad. Like Shade can take me being angry and yelling. He loves it.”

“You yell at Shade?”

My eyes narrow as I take in his disbelieving expression. “Spend an hour with him talking your ear off and see if you don’t want to punch him. I dare you. He talks like a total jerk the whole time. He makes comments to make you madder. He always wants me to fight back. Maybe Shade is a brat, too. Ugh, I don’t want to know.”

I shudder with a cringe. Where is the brain bleach when I need it?

Trevor’s mouth twitches like he’s trying to hold a smile back.

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