Page 73 of Fun and Games

Of course. Darlene knew where I was staying because I'd had to give her the address to mail the package.

"Can I come in?" she asked patiently.

Seeing my sister right there, for the first time in at least a year or more after only a few brief visits, triggered something.

She was smothering, and she thought she knew better than me, but she was my older sister and she'd always taken care of me. She'd always looked out for me. She loved me. And she'd loved David like a brother. She was one of the few people in this world who knew what I was feeling, even if her pain was only a fraction of mine.

My face crumpled. She wasted no time and pulled me into her arms. I buried my head in her shoulder and let the tears fall. She didn't care that I was getting her shirt salty-wet.

She held me, rocking me gently from side to side, until my crying eased.

I sniffled and pulled back, wiping at my cheeks.

"Want me to make you a cup of tea?" she asked.

I let out a watery laugh.

"Shouldn't I be offering you that?" I said.

"Just let me take care of you for once, okay?" she said. "You don't always need to be so stubbornly independent."

She followed me into the kitchen. Thank god I'd cleaned up the cookies from before — and taken a shower to wash my hair that morning — or else I don't know what she would have thought. I was already a mess. I didn't need her knowing exactly how far I'd fallen.

"So this is where you're staying?" she asked, sticking to light conversation for now as she filled a kettle with water from the leaky faucet and rummaged around in the cupboard for a box of tea. I knew the interrogation would come soon.

"I'm subletting the place," I said. "The owner is gone for a few months and needed to rent it out."

"It's nice," she said. "I like all the windows."

The apartment did have pretty extravagant floor to ceiling windows, which I hadn't ever paid attention to because they were covered with blinds that I kept closed most of the time.

"And you've kept the place clean," she said with approval.

"I'm not a teenaged slob anymore," I reminded her, although if she had come a few days earlier she might not have agreed with that statement.

She poured the hot water into two cups with orange pekoe tea bags in them. She handed one to me and brought the other to her lips for a sip. She always took her tea boiling hot. I had no idea how she didn't scald her tongue. I had to let mine cool down before attempting to drink it.

"How's that job working out for you?" she asked.

"Good," I replied. "They seem to like me there. I've made a friend."

Sheila's eyes lit up.

"You mentioned you went to trivia night with some friends?" she asked.

I nodded and didn't correct her that Samantha wasn't one of those friends. That had been Mason, Connor and Quinn.

I looked down into my mug. I didn't want to bring up Mason with my sister. Not yet, at least.

"And you're enjoying the job?" she asked.

"It's a little boring, but I guess that's better than stressful," I said. "It pays well enough, too."

"That's good." Sheila took another sip of her tea. "So…"

I braced myself.

"Darlene said you should have received the package by now," she said.