Page 60 of Tell Me Softly
Julian shrugged and walked over to the fridge. “To tell you the truth, my sister and I don’t really get along.”
I thought he wanted to talk a little more, maybe. It was almost as if he’d intuited that Kate had brought him up to me earlier.
“Why?” I asked, acting like I wasn’t paying much attention.
“Kate can sometimes…she can be a little cruel?” he said, fishing out two bottles of Coke.
Surprised, I asked him why.
“I think she’s jealous that her mom and I get along so well. Like, I’ve seen her start fights spontaneously just because Rachel and I were talking about books or art or whatever.”
“Are you serious? And you get along with her mom?”
“Of course I do; she practically raised me when I was a kid. I don’t know if you know this, but my mom was in and out of rehab constantly the first three years after I was born. She couldn’t take care of me, so I lived with Dad and his wife. And Kate too.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Kate acted like I stole her place. I mean, I get it in some ways. I needed attention. Having a mother who’s a drunk leaves a mark on you. I had a really hard time sleeping—I was scared at night, I had bad dreams—so Dad used to come get me and take me to bed with him and Rachel. I slept in their room for a long time because it was the only thing that made me feel safe. And Kate…”
“You think she felt pushed aside?” I asked.
“A part of me does, yeah. But there’s no way she remembers that. I think it got worse when she started getting older and her parents told her. You know Kate always needs to be…”
“The center of attention. Yeah, I know.” I finished his words as I remembered all those times I’d glimpsed her jealousy whenever I’d managed to do something better than her or gotten something she’d wished she could have. We were like rivals, but we always loved and respected each other.
It was strange to see the two sides of the story firsthand. But now I felt I understood them both better. I wished Kate hadn’t twisted certain details around, but that was like her.
“If you want to see the movie, we can use my password,” I said after a moment.
“Sure! Here, give me your Coke. I thought these were twist-offs, but they’re not. I think I’ve got a bottle opener in my toiletry bag.” He walked off to the bathroom.
When he was back, we lay down on the bed and I entered my Netflix password on the TV so we could watch the film. We ate his stash of chips and chocolate and drank our Cokes. The movie was hella scary. I even had to cover my eyes with my hands in a couple of scenes. At one point, I flinched and buried my face in Julian’s chest. He wrapped his arm around me. I felt good. Knowing that he liked boys made me relax around him. I needed a friend like that. I’d had one in Taylor, but now it was clear it was something else.
As the film reached its second half, I started drifting off, I was so relaxed. My eyelids were heavy and I was yawning. At some point I fell asleep.
And I had nightmares.
***
The next morning, I opened my eyes, and for a moment I didn’t know where I was.What the…? Oh, yeah, Julian’s room, I thought, but if that was right, where the hell was Julian? I couldn’t believe I’d slept in like that. Why hadn’t he gotten me up?
I looked at the clock on the nightstand and nearly had a heart attack. Dammit!
I jumped up, put on my shoes, and went to my room to change. It was late; I had missed almost the entire morning practice. In my room, I found Ellie asleep too.
“Hey! Get up! Do you know what time it is?”
Ellie wrapped her pillow around her head.
“Shhh! Don’t yell,” she grunted.
“Ellie, Kate’s going to kill us. We need to get to practice!”
“Kate said we were ready, that we didn’t need to.”
What?
“We don’t need to train before a competition? You’re kidding, right?”
