Page 89 of Anyone But Her

"To be supportive. After losing Albert, Luke could use all the support he can get."

"Maybe he doesn't want us there. We might make him nervous. He's probably already nervous enough. He's never done a commercial before."

"He's fine with it. I already told him I'd be there."

"Is she ready?" Cal appears next to my dad.

"Cal's going too?" I ask my dad.

"Yes. And Birdie, you're welcome to come along as well."

"What are you doing here?" Cal asks Birdie.

She sneers at him. "Nice to see you too, idiot."

"Don't start, you two." My dad sighs. "On second thought, maybe only one of you should go. I don't want you two fighting during the filming."

"We won't have time to fight," Cal says. "Birdie will be too busy swooning over her boyfriend."

"What boyfriend?" my dad asks.

"She's dating Luke," Cal says.

My dad's eyes shoot over to Birdie. "You're dating Luke? Our Luke?"

Birdie and I look at each other. Do we keep the lie going? It was only meant for Cal, not anyone else. I don't know what to do.

"Yes," Birdie says as she stands up. "I'm dating Luke. It's nothing serious. We just started going out last weekend."

My dad looks at me. "Why didn't you tell me?"

I shrug. "I didn't know you were that interested in Birdie's dating life."

"He's not," Cal says. "None of us are. Now are we going or not?"

What is Cal's problem? He was fine when I saw him at breakfast earlier and now he's acting all angry. It must be Birdie. Just being around her gets him all riled up. Those two need to learn to get along.

"Five minutes," my dad says. "I want everyone down in the car in five minutes."

He walks off.

Cal remains at my door. "You going or not?"

He directed the question to Birdie, not me.

"Why do you care if I go?" she says.

"I don't." He shakes his head and walks away.

I get up and go over to my closet. "I don't understand you two."

"What's there to understand? Your brother's an idiot. End of story."

"But why do you let him get to you? Why don't you just ignore him?"

She doesn't answer, maybe because she doesn't know why she lets him get to her. She needs to figure it out because the summer has barely started and their fighting is already getting old.

"Do you like this one?" I hold up a white polo shirt.

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