Page 88 of Falling for You
‘I’m having fun,’ I say honestly. ‘Really, this weekend has turned out better than I could have expected. But you’ve done more than enough. I’ll go.’
‘No,’ she reaches forward and touches my arm, ‘it’s fine. If you’re okay then of course, stay. Fuck, Mum will kill me if she thinks I’ve kicked you to the kerb.’ I meet her eyes and for a second I’m lost. They’re a deep, chocolatey brown, upturned at the corners and framed by feathery, dark eyelashes. ‘Stay,’ she says, pulling my arm so I’m sitting next to her on the bed. ‘Really.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes,’ she nods. She folds her legs underneath herself and runs her fingers through her hair. It takes everything in me not to take her hand, just so I can hold it in mine.
‘So,’ she says, ‘how does all this madness compare to your childhood? Was it just you and your parents?’
I lean so my back is against the wall and shake my head. ‘No, I have a younger brother. I live with him now.’
She smiles. ‘I always wanted a sibling.’
I stroke my beard, the image of Stevie with his angry, scrunched-up face floating into my mind. Then another image of him, when we were both kids. When he was always laughing, trying to get someone to chase him round the garden andplaying pranks on everyone. He used to laugh all the time before … well, I guess before Mom got sick.
‘What is it?’
I look up at Annie, breaking from my thoughts. ‘What?’
‘You looked a million miles away there.’
‘Ah,’ I smile, ‘I guess I was. I was just thinking back to my own childhood. Being here sort of reminds me of home.’
Annie watches me for a second. ‘Go on, then.’
‘What?’
‘Tell me about it.’
‘Oh,’ I laugh, ‘it’s all very boring.’
She pokes me in the ribs. ‘Everyone says that about their own life. I want to know.’
I take a deep breath and dip back into my memory, feeling myself warm.
‘Well,’ I begin, ‘I guess the best way to describe my childhood is to say it was ordinarily extraordinary. It was just like everyone else’s happy childhood, nothing particularly spectacular. We spent weekends on bikes or making dens, playing hide and seek or falling off the climbing frame in the park. Dad loves baseball, so he would sometimes drag us all out to watch a game. I think he was disappointed that he had two young kids and neither of them really cared about baseball. Or even had a slight interest in it.’
She laughs. ‘I had the same with my mum and cooking. She’s tried to teach me everything she knows so many times and I just couldn’t care less.’
‘Yes,’ I raise my eyebrows at her, ‘but you love kebabs.’
She laughs louder this time and pokes me again. ‘Okay, what else? What about your mum, and your brother?’
I force myself to pull my eyes away from her.
‘Stevie was born the most annoying person on the planet,’ I say matter-of-factly, ‘but we’ve always been thick as thieves. Nobody used to laugh as much as Stevie did – his laugh was always infectious. He could get away with murder.’
‘Used to?’
I raise my eyebrows. ‘Hmmm?’
‘Sorry,’ she says, shuffling herself on the bed, ‘you said, he used to laugh … does he not any more?’
I sigh. Damn, I hadn’t even realised I said that.
‘Sorry,’ she says quickly, ‘that’s none of my business. I shouldn’t—’
‘No,’ I interrupt, taking her hand to stop her from flapping it around anxiously, ‘it’s fine. I just hadn’t registered I’d said it. I guess he’s just more stressed now … we all are, really.’
