Page 17 of Missing Linc
I stink, but it will have to do for now. It’s not like we’re going out.
“Nothing. But I’ve got places to be, so let’s do this,” she says, clapping her hands together, earning a side-eye as I stand by my bedroom door with sleep crusting my eyes.
I scratch it off and flick it away. One of these days I might murder my sister for waking me up at eight in the freaking morning.
One of these days, I’ll actually do it.
“I thought you were off today.”
She shrugs.
“I am. But I’ve got an interview for the zoo,” she says.
My smile widens. Of course she does.
“Oh, wow. Did you finally decide to audition? Are you going for the chimpanzee role or the hippo one?”
Thatearnsmea slap on the back of the head. Not that I don’t deserve it, but it was so worth it.
Yeah. I’m a grump when I wake up. So what? Shoot me.
She leads us out into the living room, we drag the coffee table away to the wall, and take our yoga mats from under the couch.
“I thought you were happy at the Anchor,” I say as she puts on our core exercise on the TV and we get to work.
“Come on. How happy can someone be waitressing at a bar?” she says.
“I don’t know. Very? Depends on what that someone wants out of life.”
“Exactly. I don’t want to be a server all my life,” she says.
“And you want to be a zoo guide all your life?”
I sigh internally because that’s the routine with my sister. Exercise and life dilemmas. I just know come Monday she’ll come back home, tell me she quit the Anchor—which is a great place for tips and I wish I worked there myself, but whatever—and took the job at the zoo. Then five weeks later, she’ll tell me she’s bored looking at animals all day and took a job at another bar.
Story of her life.
And I guess now it’s the story of mine. Listening to her life crises, day in, day out.
When we first moved in together some four years ago, I used to fight with her all the time about not taking her life seriously. Now, I just let her make those mistakes and hope that one of these days she’ll learn a lesson.
What that lesson might be, I don’t know. I just hope she does. Before I kill her.
I can’t imagine what it’s like not having a dream in life. I can’t imagine what it’s like not having an aspiration or a hobby that you absolutely love. I’ve always wanted to dance. And act. I can’t imagine life without doing either.
But Autumn? She doesn’t have that, and some days I feel sorry for her.
At least she hasn’t decided to join the Army or anything crazy like our brother, Parker, who I’ve barely seen since we left home, and even longer before that.
All we know is that he’s a Navy SEAL and occasionally shows up for Christmas dinner with us. And when I say occasionally, I mean once. Heonceturned up for Christmas dinner. Andoncehe showed up for my birthday.
“Anyway, enough about me. I haven’t even gotten the job at the zoo yet. How are the rehearsals? I feel like I’ve barely seen you these past few weeks,” she says.
It’s been three weeks since we started rehearsals and three weeks since I’ve been officially fucked.
Not in the good way, of course. I’m not a lucky guy like that.
No fucking for this dude. Just a lot of fawning.
