Page 52 of Tell Me When It's Over

“Keep it that way, kid.” He opens the passenger side door for me, gripping the edges while I slide in. “Guys that age are trouble.”

Chapter Fifteen

Kyler / 20

The living room floor looks like Christmas Day threw up all over it, except it’s like a Tim Burton version because the wrapping paper is made of my worst nightmares. Balling up the nearest piece of purple monstrosity that has Violet Wonders’ logo all over it, I glare at my giggling sisters.

“Very funny,” I mutter dryly, opening the box and seeing another horror folded inside. Picking up the t-shirt, I hold it out to the only person in the room who would wear it. “Did you buy yourself a gift?”

Leighton snags it up and holds it to her torso like a prized possession. I’m glad we haven’t eaten cake yet because I might lose it. “I got it for myself as an early birthday gift.”

I eye my big sister, but Mia just blinks innocently at me as if this isn’t her doing. “Your idea, I presume.”

“The girl hasn’t touched any of the money Dad has given her. She deserved a present for herself. I just thought it’d be funny if she gave it to you first.”

I flip her off.

Leighton bites her wavering lip to fight off a smile and lowers the shirt onto her lap. “It’s not all I got you. Look under the paper, there’s something else.”

Hesitantly, because I’m not sure if I can trust Lenny now that she’s been corrupted, I lift the slim paper and see a picture frame laying underneath. It’s black, simple, and the picture resting inside makes me smile as soon as I recognize it.

“It’s not much,” she whispers as I lift it from the box and stare at the image of the three of us. In it, I’m carrying Leighton on my back while Mia holds the phone to take the selfie of all of us together. Part of her head is cut off because she tried fitting us all in the frame.

“It’s perfect, Lele.” I have plenty of nicknames for Mia, which usually involve some sort of cuss word, but Leighton deserves something as light as her personality.

She smiles back down at the picture. “I know you told me not to spend any of my money on you, and there’s a lot I could have bought, but there isn’t a picture of just us anywhere, so—”

I cut off her rambling with a laugh. “Like I said, it’s perfect. You shouldn’t spend your money on anybody but yourself.” I know that the allowance our father gives her makes her uncomfortable. It’s one of the reasons it rests in a bank account untouched. I had to force her hand at carrying a little cash in case of emergencies, but to my knowledge, she’s barely touched that either.

Mia grabs one of the pieces of wrapping paper and throws it at me. “So, can we have cake now or what?”

I roll my eyes. “You act like we didn’t just eat an hour ago.”

She pouts. “I’m hungry. Plus, I always have room for cake. Don’t tell my trainer though, he’ll make me run an extra five miles on the treadmill tomorrow.”

Lenny’s face makes me chuckle. She’s made it clear she doesn’t like to exercise. The most she’ll do is use the pool here and swim on the hotter days, not that she does it often. At first, I worried she couldn’t swim and offered to teach her, but she ended up being a better swimmer than me when she finally jumped in. Like always, she felt weird about using our things, and it’s finally worn off enough for her to enjoy herself from time to time.

We end up in the kitchen, ignoring the mess behind us for later. Beth isn’t due to come in until first thing Monday morning, but we’ll have it cleaned before bed tonight. I can tell Len gets uneasy if we leave something behind. I’ve caught her countless times doing dishes in the kitchen, forgoing even the state-of-the-art dishwasher, just so the person we hire won’t have to do the extra work. I’ve joined in, making sure to rinse and wash everything after I’m done with it. Mia still grumbles about it, but I think even she does it to appease our little sister.

Once I serve everyone cake, store bought marble because I can never choose between chocolate or vanilla, I turn to Leighton. “So, what do you want to do for your birthday?”

She plays with her slice of cake. “I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it.”

Her birthday is only a week and a half after mine, but she rarely talks about it. “Well, think of something. We can have another night in like we did for mine, or Mia and I can take you somewhere.”

“Absolutely,” our sister chimes in.

Leighton shrugs. “I’m not really into celebrating, so maybe we should—”

“Nope.” Mia sets her plate down. “I refuse to be related to someone who won’t celebrate their birthdays.”

I snort. As if she had a choice. “You’re just saying that because you go over the top and celebrate your entire birth month.” I’m not exaggerating as much as I wish I were. She always has something ridiculous planned for the entire month of March. Last year, that included a spontaneous trip to the Caribbean. The year before, Mia rented out Disneyland—as in, the entire park.

Pushing that away, I focus on the person we should be talking about. “Why don’t you like celebrating?”

She tries hiding her frown behind the glass of soda in her hands, but I see it. It’s a twitch that weighs downward, curling like she’d rather be talking about anything but this.

“What do you normally do for them?” I pry knowingly. She and Katherine have been in our lives for over a year now. I know that Leighton has a sugar addiction, with chocolate and cherry Pepsi being her go-to favorites, that she has a nasty liking for boxed macaroni and cheese, and her favorite pastime is reading dusty looking books that look older than her. Her mother, however, I know little about.

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