Page 23 of Choosing Her
She lifted one shoulder in an almost-shrug. “What is getting along with a sister, really? We talk. We’re friendly. But I don’t know that I would call her a friend.”
That sounded sad. I couldn’t imagine being on those terms with any of my sisters. Even Alivia, the one furthest from my age, was a friend to me.
“Do you see them a lot?” Saylor asked. “I mean, what with balancing time between both parents’ houses and boarding school.”
We talked about school only briefly, just touching on the fact that we both went to boarding schools. She didn’t offer up where hers was and neither did I.
“Our families get together a lot,” I said. “Like my mom, my dad, Aspen and Alivia’s dad, Emerson and Peyton’s mom—the whole group comes together. I guess my parents figured if we’re all going to be in each other’s lives anyway, we might as well embrace it.”
Saylor smiled, but her eyes looked distant. “That must be nice, seeing your whole family like that.”
There was something about the way she said it, so wistful, that made me think she didn't have the same thing.
“Do you?—”
But I got cut off by the sound of someone screaming outside and we both looked toward the window on the wall behind Saylor. But we were so high above the ground, all that was outside of it was night sky.
Saylor looked at me. “What do you think? Getting murdered or having fun?”
“I’m gonna go with having fun. Mostly because if he's getting murdered then I would feel bad about the fact that we're just sitting here doing nothing about it.”
She laughed and held her can of coke up to say, “Well, cheers to that.”
I smiled back as I hit my drink against hers. And then, a minute later, I jumped off the dryer and held a hand out to her to help her do the same.
“What are you doing?” She asked, but she took my hand anyway, like she trusted me implicitly.
“I don’t know about you,” I said, “but I didn’t come all this way to sit in a cramped room until midnight. Why don’t we find the fun too?”
I was half-expecting her to say no—she’d hidden in here for a reason after all. But then she kicked off her shoes and threw her arms around my neck, so I could give her a piggy-back ride.
“Lead the way.”
CHAPTER 15
saylor
Family day was pretty muchas bad as I expected it to be. I met more people’s siblings than I ever cared to, was introduced to parents who seemed more concerned about meeting teachers than their kids’ friends, and had to extricate myself from a group of girls who recognized Lilah’s brother, Jude, when we were all standing together and demanded photos.
At least it was entertaining, I guess.
At one point, I tried to go back to the dorms, then realized they were just as packed the main building of the school. I guess most people’s parents cared just as much about their kid’s living situation as they did their grades. I wondered what that was like. With everyone milling about their dorm doors open, it felt like a rude statement to shut mine and tell them to ignore me. Not to mention that when I was sitting in my room, all I could hear was everyone laughing in the hallway. These dorms weren’t built for soundproofing, but normally I didn’t mind, because I had people hanging out with me too. Today, it was just downright depressing.
Group Name:Regrettable Decisions Inc.
Members:Saylor, Poppy, Lilah, Elodie
Saylor
What’s everyone up to right now?
I regretted sending the message pretty much immediately, as I realized it acted like a beacon to say“hey look! I’m the only one who doesn’t have a family to visit her today!”I didn’t like to advertise my family situation to my friends, and even if I wanted to, I wasn’t sure how I could explain it to them.Yeah, my parents really love each other but not their kids. Happens, right?
I’d learned that my family structure wasn’t normal pretty early on in my school years. Other people’s parents would come in for career day or chaperone field trips. My parents couldn’t even be bothered to drive us to school in the morning, instead sending us with our driving. Then as soon as we became old enough, they shipped us off to boarding school without even pausing to ask if we were interested. Or maybe they asked Naomi for the both of us and just assumed my answer would be the same. They certainly seemed to think may thoughts would always be identical to hers.
Elodie
Studying :(
