Page 14 of Indigo Sky

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"All right, are you boys all set?" Dad asked, leaning against the kitchen counter. "You got everything you need?"

"And if you think of anything else," Mom added, her eyes already misting with tears as she headed toward the door, "youjust give me a call. Or stop by and take whatever you want from the pantry."

Nate was already lounging on the new couch from IKEA, flipping through the channels on our gently used TV. I glanced around the small kitchen/living room/dining room, taking it all in and realizing that—holy shit—this was mine and this was really happening.

It had taken a little while for Nate and me to find a nearby apartment in our price range, especially one with two bedrooms—which, for me, was a must-have. Nate hadn't seemed to mind either way, but there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell I was going to bring a girl home to my shared bedroom with my roommate/sort of adopted brother.

Mom had found this place just a few weeks ago. Someone had posted the listing on social media—a two-bedroom apartment right above a Chinese restaurant on Main Street. The rent was steep, but utilities were all included, which helped to cut costs. Parking was free, and the place came with two spaces in the lot behind the store. Pets were prohibited, which sucked because I would've liked to have a dog or something, but I figured that could come at some point later down the road. But for now, as our first place, this one seemed to check off most of the boxes, so we took it … under the promise that there would be zero parties at the property. But, as we had told our new landlord, we were each other’s only friend, and unless she considered that a party, there was nothing she needed to worry about as far as we were concerned.

But the day we’d signed the one-year lease felt so far in the past, despite it being only a couple weeks ago. Now, I lookedaround, hardly able to push beyond how fucking surreal it was to call a place home that wasn't my parents' house.

I shrugged. "Nah, I think we have everything we need for now."

"You sure?" Dad asked, his voice teetering toward teasing. "You got enough ramen and Dr. Pepper?"

I rolled my eye at his jab toward my latest food addictions. "The grocery store is, like, five minutes away."

"And we"—Mom came to wrap her arms around my waist, pressing her cheek to my chest—"are even closer. The door is always open."

"I know, Mom," I said, hugging her back and suppressing the urge to groan impatiently.

"I mean it. Whenever you need us, you come home. No matter what time it is. Okay?"

"Ah, come on, Susan," Dad said, his voice gruff and tight. "We're two minutes down the street, not three states away."

"I know," she whispered, inhaling slowly. "But that doesn't mean I won't miss him."

My chest felt constricted as I puffed out my cheeks with a full exhale. If she kept this up, I was going to get stupid and emotional, and that was the last thing I needed. I glanced over her head and caught Nate's obnoxious expression of mockery and boredom, and I made a mental note to kick his ass when Igot the chance. Sometimes, he seemed to forget who had kept a roof over his head the past few years, and it pissed me off.

Finally, Mom let go, patted my chest, and made me promise for the gazillionth time that I'd give them a call if I needed anything—or just came home, which seemed to be preferred. Then, Dad dragged her out of there and closed the door behind him, not forgetting to wink at me before he disappeared.

"Jesus Christ," Nate groaned the second they were gone. "I didn't think they were ever gonna get the fuck out of here."

"Yeah, well, you don't need to be a dick about it either," I pointed out, walking through the apartment to drop down on the other end of the couch.

"Oh, okay, what was I supposed to do instead? Take out the camera and document your little Kodak moment?"

"No," I muttered, snatching the remote from him. "But you didn't have to be over here, rolling your fuckin' eyes. Don't forget, they've been feeding your ass for the past, what? Eleven years?"

Fuck, had it really been that long since we were eight?

I might not have had peripheral vision on my right side, but I could feel his glare burning a hole through my face.

"Oh, so you've been keeping count, huh?"

"I'm just saying."

"How about we tally up all the times I kicked someone's ass because they’d said some shit about you?"

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and jabbed at the remote button with my thumb.

"Or maybe you'd like to talk about how many times I covered for you when you wanted to go out and do whatever the fuck you were doing with Ashley—"

"What?" I barked an incredulous laugh at the mention of a girl I had studied with a couple of times in school. "The hell are you talking about?"

"Ashley! That chick you went out with a couple—"

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