Page 67

She wasn’t exactly sure what else he was doing since she’d decided that it was imperative for her to turn around and head back to the window. She barely made it two feet before she suddenly found herself thrown over Sebastian’s shoulder.

“You know,” he began conversationally, “it’s still pretty dark out. Why don’t we work on your pushups for now?”

“But…my revenge,” Mikey mumbled sadly, not really caring that she was pouting.

Sebastian gave her leg a patronizing pat as he said, “And it was terrifying. I’ll probably have to sleep with one eye open for the rest of my life now.”

With a sniffle, Mikey said, “Well, I guess that’s something.”

Chapter 30

“This just isn’t going to work for me,” Aunt Haley said as she placed the essay that he’d been working on for the past week back in front of him.

“What’s wrong with it?” Sebastian asked as he handed the bottle back to Hunter, who had thrown it on the floor, hoping to distract Sebastian long enough so that he could steal his sandwich.

“Everything,” Aunt Haley said, reaching up to push her glasses back up her nose.

“That really cleared everything up. Thanks,” Sebastian said dryly with a mock glare that had her smiling.

“It didn’t move me,” Aunt Haley said as she helped herself to his chips while Hunter managed to get his tiny hands on his sandwich.

“It’s supposed to move you?” S

ebastian asked with a resigned sigh as he got up and grabbed everything out of the refrigerator that he was going to need to make another sandwich.

“So then, what are they looking for?” Sebastian asked as he made another turkey sandwich.

“More than this,” Aunt Haley said even as he had to wonder why he was wasting his time.

They were never going to let him in no matter how good his essay was, but then again, that wasn’t really the point was it? He needed to do this for Mikey. She wanted to play baseball next year and he was going to make sure that happened, which meant that he had to play along.

“Can you be more specific?” Sebastian asked as he reached for the mayonnaise and–

“Light on the mayonnaise, please,” Aunt Haley said, making his lips twitch as he reached for another plate. “They want a glimpse of who you are, how well you handle yourself, your ability to explain yourself, and they want you to convince them that you are the best choice.”

“Okay, so then what would you suggest I write about?” Sebastian asked as he quickly finished making her sandwich and started making one for himself.

“You could write about your expulsion and how that affected your life, but then you take the risk of reminding them that you were expelled from middle school, which might not end well.”

“True,” Sebastian murmured in agreement, mostly because there was no way in hell that he was going to write about that when he didn’t even like thinking about it.

“You could talk about what it was like when your mom acted as a surrogate for Darrin and Marybeth, and what it felt like when you saw the triplets for the first time,” Aunt Haley suggested.

“That’s not really my experience though,” Sebastian pointed out since the extent of his involvement in that had been getting his mom snacks, trying to stay out of trouble, and watching his father lose his mind whenever his mother tried to do anything for herself.

Sighing, Aunt Haley said, “Good point. You could write an essay about the person that has made the biggest impact on your life?”

Before he could respond, she said, “Or you could write about an experience that changed your life?”

“There’s really not much to write about,” he said, since he doubted that anyone wanted to read just how pathetic his life was given that the answer to both of those suggestions involved Mikey.

He wouldn’t be able to write about why Mikey coming into his life had made such a big impact without reminding them just how badly he’d screwed up his life in the first place. That, and he didn’t like talking about Mikey. He knew that his family wondered about them, but–

“More mayonnaise,” Mrs. Blaine said as she rolled into the kitchen, making him bite back a sigh as he grabbed another plate.

“Or you could tell them about yourself,” Aunt Haley suggested, sounding thoughtful.

“I could…” Sebastian said, letting his words trail off as he made quick work of making another sandwich.