Page 7

“What does Crimball want with you anyway? You can’t think this is real.”

Her face turned a bright pink, and her hand was abruptly gone from my arm—Oh, I’d pissed her off now. She stared straight ahead, her lips squishing together. “You’re such a jerk, I swear to god.” She walked ahead of me, her hips at a sway.

That was the precarious moment our futures could have forked; the bad, bad thing wouldn’t have happened, and my sister would still be with us. As Piper’s swaying hips got farther and farther away, I saw Gran’s face looming larger.Do not let that girl get pregnant!Gran was still holding on to last year’s version of Piper, and I couldn’t blame her. Piper had been expelled for inappropriate behavior on campus, which boiled down to making out with boys in empty classrooms. Gran didn’t seem to be buying into her religious stint any more than I was. My only choice was to follow her. Picking up my feet, I marched after her with a deep sigh, the resentment hot in my chest.

Who did she think she was, anyway? She looked ridiculous with her too-tight clothes, like she was playing at being an adult. If Piper had a baby, I’d be the one taking care of it. That thought pinged an alarm in my brain, and I ran to catch up—almost running into a mother and daughter coming out of Claire’s. I gave them a brief apologetic smile and hurried on,oblivious to the fact that there was something coming for us that was far darker, far harder to navigate than a teen pregnancy.

They saw us before we saw them. “Hey, Piper!”

We turned toward the voice. Standing against the wall between Victoria’s Secret and Jamba Juice was not Matt Crimball, the high school football star, but Colby Crimball, his meager younger brother. I could barely keep a straight face as we approached their leaning spot—Piper had been had.

Two years younger and five inches shorter, Colby had weepy eyes and a snub nose. To be fair, no one else in the Crimball family was good-looking. Matt was so much the outlier that there were rumors his mom had an affair with the high school coach around the time he was conceived, though I figured he was just gene pool lucky like my sister.

Piper was going to shit a brick over this.

Colby elbowed one of the guys next to him when he saw us. I glanced at her face and saw confusion flash to disbelief flash to her usual stony expression. “Where’s Matt?”

“Matt who?” Colby joked.

A few steps closer and I could see the bar piercing his eyebrow. Colby was flanked by two of his friends and Dupont in a yellow beanie, lurking off to the side looking pleased with himself. Knowing he misled Piper made me angry, angrier than I was at Piper. I glared at him.

“Whoa, you guys are twins? You don’t have the same vibe…at all.” Colby pushed off the wall and came toward us, his jaunty little stride pissing me off. He was wearing a purple hoodie, and a frizzy tuft of hair shot out from under his hood. He looked like the kind of guy who always had crusts in the corner of his eyes and was too lazy to wipe them out.

I was surprised when I heard Piper’s voice—“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her eyes turned their fury onto him, and he shriveled.

“Nothing. I was making a joke.”

“Yeah? It has to be funny to be considered a joke.”

“Take it easy, princess.” He backed away, palms up, then glanced over his shoulder at the other guys. His face was red, but other than that you couldn’t tell he was angry. I could tell. I felt it rising off his body like a dampness. I looked at my sister to see if she noticed, but she was focused on her own offense, probably planning her next words.

Dupont must’ve decided to smooth things over, because a moment later he was circling us, stopping between Piper and Colby, and he threw an arm around each of their shoulders. I took a step sideways to get out of his range. I didn’t want him touching me.

“Come on, we’re all here now…” He stank of cigarettes. I blinked hard, hating the smell. It reminded me of living with our mother. I saw a flash of her in my mind, passed out on the brown suede couch, a cigarette burning to ash in the green shell ashtray.

Dupont was still talking. “What do you say we have some fun? We’ll take you to the movies. Our treat.”

My ears perked up at the mention of a trip to my favorite place. I could practically smell the popcorn, but I did not want to go with them.

Piper glared at him, but instead of shaking her head, she shrugged. She was tugging on the ends of her hair—something she did when she was thinking.

“What the hell, Piper?” I said under my breath.

“I don’t want to go home…and besides, it’s free.”

I turned my head away and stared at the entrance to Claire’s, where a kid a few years older than us was getting his ear pierced. His girlfriend was holding his hand. They were cute, and I wished I was tagging along with them instead.

“Iris!”

“What?” I turned my attention back to them, realizing we’d become a group of six.Dupont, Colby Crimball, and the other two who he introduced as RJ and Angel—who looked like seniors or older. I made eye contact with the one he called Angel, who was looking from Piper to me with curiosity. He had short dark hair and a well-manicured goatee. The other one, RJ, had an elbow for a chin. His hair was dyed white-blond, and I could see an inch of brown roots.

Piper nudged me, and I pulled my eyes away from RJ. “You cool with that movie?”

I hadn’t heard them say the name of a movie, though I highly doubted we were headed to see the Victorian one I’d planned on watching today. But I supposed anything was better than hearing these losers talk.

It was my turn to shrug. “Yeah, whatever.”

We fell into step with Colby and Piper leading the way. Angel, RJ, and I fell into a line with me in the middle.