Page 103 of The Fate Of Us

Wow. I’ve never felt older in my life, and I’m only twenty-five.

“Never mind,”

I pull my head back and shake it, making a mental note to watch Agent Cody Bankswhen I get back to the hotel. For my own peace of mind. “When do you leave?” I don’t really want to know the answer to this, but I have to, I have to know the deadline.

Her pretty eyes meet mine as she grits out, “June fourteenth.”

Four weeks away. Two days before theForever and Alwaysshoot wraps.

Her head falls forward, strands of blonde almost getting tangled in her pie. “I’m supposedto be there until after the New Year.”

I shake my head. “You won’t be, Goldie. Because they can’t make you go.” I reassureher. “Tell them again. That you don’t want to leave.”

“Ihave.” Her head bolts back up.

“Well do it again, Goldie.”

“Addy,” I felt her sigh in my soul. “You know as well as I do that they may as well bedeaf. They. Don’t. Listen.”

That sentence hits me like a rounders ball to the chest. Which I’ve actually experiencedthanks to Flo dragging us all to Central a few months back to teach us how to play. It’s like baseball, essentially. Just less patriotic, and muddier.

“I could scream in their faces about how much I don’t want to leave, which I pretty muchhave, and they wouldn’t so much as blink.” She bobs her head towards the window, stealing a breath and composing herself.

She’s the mirror of me in that moment, and it scares me how I know every confusingemotion that’s racing through her mind.

“You know how they are, they wouldn’t listen to me even if I was on fire. Mom wouldlook over me, smooth out my hair and then she’d turn her back. Dad… I don’t think he’d react.” Her glossed lips pout, subtle enough that I would have missed it had I blinked.

“I’ve told them time and time again that I don’t want to act, that I want to go to collegeand learn and live my life without fear when I’m going to be stuck in an audition room next.”

“And… nothing?”

My sister shook her head. “Nothing.”

I take a sip of my coffee. “Well, maybe my being here will change things.” I meet hereyes, sadder than I ever want to see them, before she drops them into the pie, still steaming on the plate below her. “Hey,” I get her eyes again. “It’ll be okay, they can’t make you go if you don’t want to.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” She mumbles, but I catch it just enough.

A subject change. That’s what we needed.

“So… is there anything you really wanna do while I’m here?” She looks up withoutmoving her head. “Road trip? Shopping day? Hire out Disneyland?—”

“Can we hang out with Nate?” She lifts her head fully, “But yes, the Disneyland thingtoo.”

“Oh,” I ponder, trying to figure out what to tell her.

You know what Goldie, me and Nate kind of hate each other. Have done since he left forcollege. But we don’t really hate each other, I don’t think. It’s complicated. But we’re not best friends, or together, far from it. Sorry, I lied.

I could tell her that. Should tell her that. But there’s that sprinkle of hope in her voice, anoptimistic kind of glee cast in her eyes. The kind that always seems to show up when we talk about Nate.

“Or do you think he’ll be busy with that girl he was seeing?” She follows up, bobbing herhead to the side. “Amber… whatshername.”

I shrug. “They aren’t together.” I look off into space. “Well, I don’t think they are.”

I never did get around to asking him, but as I said, if the way he kissed me said anything,it was that he and Amber were merely a tremor. A light rattle compared to us; a force that would break the Richter scale.

“So he can come to Disneyland with us?” Goldie asks, a mischievous smile plastered onher face.

“I was joking about that. I’m not that rich.” I say, as she mumbles ‘except you are’ underher breath.

---