Page 26 of You Float My Boat

The summer we’d turned thirteen had coincided with another Marvel film being released in the cinema. Hugo had shot up three inches and expanded approximately four feet wide in a matter of months, and promptly decided that he could be the next superhero if he worked hard enough.

Since then, there’d been too many occasions to count when I’d caught him checking himself out in the mirror, therefore it was my job as a younger sister to keep his head a size which could fit through doorways. Stella was only too happy to lend a hand.

Shooting one last scowl in her direction, he focused on me, holding his phone so close to my face I needed to step back. ‘Care to explain this?’

‘Um …’ I blinked as my eyes focused on the screen and the Instagram picture of Charlie and me. ‘Which bit do you need explaining, exactly?’

‘All of it.’

‘Honestly, Huey, how did you get into Oxford?’ Stella drawled, pointing at the screen. ‘It’s clearly a picture of Charlie and Violet. See, this is Violet, your sister, and this is Charlie kissing Violet’s cheek.’

This time she earned herself a snarl.

‘Why is my best friend kissing you?’ he gritted out.

Taking another step back I crossed my arms. Or would have if I wasn’t holding two steaming cups of coffee. My scowl would have to do. ‘Are you serious?’

‘What?’

‘You were the one who gave him my number in the first place. If you didn’t want him kissing me, then you should have thought about that.’

‘Violet, what are you talking about?’

‘Helping Charlie with Evie,’ I replied, slowly, because he was clearly struggling today.

It took a second before realization dawned. Charlie was right, he’d forgotten. Hugo’s eyes widened as quickly as his mouth formed an oval. ‘Ohhhh. Evie. The fake girlfriend thing.’

‘Yeah.’

His gaze narrowed like he was still trying to wrap his head around the concept. ‘And this picture is part of that?’

‘Yes.’

‘So you’re not going around making out with my friends?’

I rolled my eyes, mostly because I refused to dignify that with a response but also because I didn’t have an answer. Not a black and white one anyway.

‘Is checking up on my dating life the only reason you’ve graced this side of the city?’

‘No,’ he scoffed, too quickly. Quickly enough that it made it clear my dating life wasexactlywhy he was over this side. ‘Where are you two going anyway?’

My head tilted toward Stella. ‘We’re popping into the theatre to see if the roles have been put up.’

‘For your play?’

‘Yup.’ I nodded.

‘Okay, well, good luck with that.’ He glanced at Stella, then back down at the two cups in my hand. ‘Who’s the spare coffee for?’

‘It’s mine,’ answered Stella before I could. ‘I just really love a big coffee and these take-away cups are simply too small.’

My brother stood there, peering between the pair of us, like he was trying to figure us out. I wasn’t about to hold my breath; it had been eight years already and he still wasn’t any closer. I think we’d finally got to the point where he’d stopped questioning, and just simply thought we were eccentric.

I could live with being eccentric.

‘Okay,’ he replied finally, before adding, ‘call Mum. She asked me to tell you.’

‘She never answers when I call,’ I grumbled. ‘Only bloody you.’

---