Page 46 of Test the Ice
Malaki
Movers will be at your apartment in an hour to get your things. See you at home.
I quickly fling my attention out the windshield, but Malaki and the bus are long gone.
“Oh my god, stop being so dramatic about this!” Zoe spins around the foyer of the address Malaki gave me with bewilderment. “Look at our new place!”
I refuse to call it ours, because it’s not, but apparently, Zoe didn’t get that memo.
Charleigh claps aggressively in my arms, bouncing up and down as she watches her auntie twirl over the marble floor.
“Even Char is excited!” she says.
“That’s because you’re acting like a maniac!” I hiss.
“Says the girl wearing an engagement ring from a man she hardly knows.”
My jaw drops. “You’re the one who told me to go through with this!”
Zoe’s laugh echoes throughout the empty space. “I’m kidding! Of course I’m all for it. It’s like killing two birds with one stone. A better place to live, and we’re getting rid of Benedict? I mean, why wouldn’t you?”
I turn my back to Zoe and ignore the small stack of boxes from our apartment in the middle of the floor. The moving company showed up with four hefty men, thinking they’d have to move loads of furniture and household goods down three flights of stairs, but in reality, it was four boxes, and most of the things were Charleigh’s.
“Because,” I stress. “I feel like a charity case.”
My head spins the longer I stand unmoving in the foyer of a house that I’d never be able to afford. It’s in a historical part of town where the homes are even more expensive, with pretty windows for natural light and bricks that are fully intact and not at all crumbling.
There’s even a little yard full of green grass in the back for Charleigh to play on.
I slowly walk throughout the house and remind myself that this is all fake.
I can’t get invested.
Zoe follows me, and we both stare into the kitchen. It’s pristine with state-of-the-art appliances and a modern feel. Zoe steals Charleigh out of my arms and helps her stand on top of the kitchen island.
“We’ve been a charity case our entire lives.” Zoe scrunches her nose at Charleigh. She bounces up and down, her little bare feet leaving footprints on the marble. I spy her two little bottom teeth and can't help but smile too. “What’s a few more months?” she finishes, raising an eyebrow at me.
Charleigh squeals, and my shoulders drop.
“A few months?” I take Charleigh from Zoe. “You think that’s all it’ll take? Just a few months of acting happily in love with some hockey player and playing ‘family’ with him?”
Zoe tightens her ponytail and heads for the stairs. “A few months, a year? I guess we’ll see.” She jogs up the steps and shouts over her shoulder. “Either way, I get the biggest room.”
“Yeah right!” I call after her. “You’re going back to the dorms!”
“Never!” she shouts back.
I laugh to myself as Charleigh wiggles in my arms again.
“Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma,” she babbles.
“Okay,fine.” I press my nose to hers.“We can stay. But don’t get attached. This isn’t permanent.”
“Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma.” Her little hand lands on mine, and she is immediately distracted by the ring on my finger. Her lower lip pops out as she studies it, concentrating on the shine that continues to catch my eye too.
“Don’t get attached to that either,” I whisper, more to myself than her. “It isn’t permanent.”
Seventeen
