Page 22 of Is It Casual Now?

twenty-two

“Can you grab those lights?” Jessie pointed to a box on the stage.

Jamie walked over and pulled them out. They were a tangled mess. “Did you put these away last year?”

“Maybe.” Jessie grinned. “I promised Aisha that I’d help her out. I just didn’t mention you were going to be my light detangler.”

“Perfect.” Jamie frowned as she plopped her butt onto the stage and started to unwind the cords. They had an hour until the parents started showing up with their kids for the holiday concert, and Jamie didn’t want to be there. But she’d promised Jessie she would be, and there was no way she was going to break a promise to her sister.

Jessie continued to work alongside a few other teachers and parent volunteers, leaving Jamie alone except to snag the next string of lights that they were putting up around the auditorium. Jamie frowned as she worked. Jessie was so damn popular. It sucked. Jamie had never been popular, and while they were in high school, Jamie had hated every single minute of it. Especially because people she really didn’t like would start to talk to her, thinking she was Jessie.

It wasn’t that hard to tell them apart, was it?

Jessie was happy and popular, and Jamie was the one that dragged everyone down.

“Seriously, what’s wrong with you today?”

“Huh?” Jamie looked up, finding Jessie giving her the evil eye.

“I’ve called your name like four times.”

“Sorry, I was…distracted.” What she was actually doing was sitting in the woe is me, the world hates me moment that she used to live for when she was younger. She’d managed to process through a lot of that since then, but it still came back to bite her in the ass when she wasn’t expecting it. And since she’d missed the interview time with Siena, she’d been right back in that moment.

“Distracted or… something else?”

Like hell was Jamie going to admit that. Not tonight of all nights. “When are we doing Christmas at the house?”

“Christmas day?” Jessie answered, raising an eyebrow up. “You’re in the group text.”

Yeah, but Jamie had been avoiding her phone like the plague ever since that voicemail had come through. Had Siena really thought she was dead in a ditch somewhere or had she just been trying to guilt Jamie about missing the interview that she had begged for. She’d even gotten down on her knees at one point and begged Siena for it—though Siena might see that particular moment in an entirely different way than Jamie did.

“James.”

“What? Sorry.” She shook her head again as she pulled particularly hard on the next row of lights she was detangling. “These things are annoying.” She nearly threw her hands up in the air and gave up. “Do you really need them all? ”

“We need that one, and then we’re done.”

“Fine.” Jamie went back to focusing on the cord slipping between her fingers. She’d hated missing that meeting.

“Oh, the kids are coming,” Jessie said. “Hurry up.”

Jamie finally got the last knot undone and handed the cord over. Jessie immediately put it up and then started to hug her students as they came in one by one. God, her sister was so popular. There was nothing better than being a teacher of little kids. They always loved their teacher. Meanwhile, Jamie had picked a career where no one would ever like her.

And sometimes she just wanted to be liked.

That was a lie. She wanted to be liked most times. Just sometimes she wasn’t willing to accept that she wasn’t the lovable twin.

“Ms. K! Your twin is here!” Harley’s sweet voice filled Jamie’s ears.

Jamie closed her eyes, debating whether or not to make a run for it. She’d known that Siena would likely show up that night, that she wasn’t going to bail on her daughter again when it came to something as important as this. But she had thought that she could sneak out before they showed up.

She’d just have to fake it until she made it.

She could pretend she was Jessie, right? Bubbly, outgoing, the one that everyone loved, and didn’t care what people thought of her? Yeah. She’d done that before, and she could do it again. Jamie pushed herself off the edge of the stage and smoothed her hands down her tight jeans and the ugly Christmas sweater she’d insisted on wearing so that she could match the kids that night.

She walked close to Jessie, needing to stick by her sister to keep her sanity for the next little bit, and she was pleasantly surprised to see that Siena was nowhere in sight. However, there were two other women standing with Harley. One Jamie recognized as Harley’s other mother—although she didn’t remember her name at all.

God, Jamie needed to be better with names, but so often she was lost in her own world trying to figure out everyone’s drama that she forgot she needed to pay attention to those people around her. “See, Mama!”

“I see, Harley.” The cute brunette put her hand on Harley’s shoulder.

The other brunette looked like Siena in a lot of ways, except they had vastly different eyes. Where Siena’s were dark brown, this woman had honeyed eyes.

“I’m Jamie.” She extended her hand.

“Tori. And this is Miranda.” Miranda didn’t smile at all, and the similarities between her and Siena intensified. She wrangled a wild little child on her hip, a mop of curls on her head that covered her eyes and hung all the way down to her shoulders at this point. The kid, however, was utterly adorable. Even Jamie couldn’t deny that one.

“This is Rebel!” Harley chimed in, pointing to the kid that Miranda was holding. “She’s my sister-cousin!”

“Right.” Jamie frowned when she saw that Harley’s arm was in a cast from her fingers all the way up past her elbow and nearly to her shoulder. “What happened, kiddo?”

“I fell off the bed.” She frowned and stared down at it. “Wanna sign it?”

“Sure.” Jamie waited while Harley dug around in her mom’s purse for something and then handed over a permanent marker.

Jamie had never actually signed a cast before. Everyone had always wanted Jessie to do that, not her. She found Ms. K written with a heart and decided to write next to it. She printed her name instead of using cursive and she added a heart over the I just to make it seem far more kid friendly.

“There you go. ”

“Thanks!” Harley stared down at it and beamed. “It’s almost filled up!”

“It is.” Jamie put her hands on her hips and stilled. Even from this side of the room she could feel when Siena entered the auditorium. Looking up and toward the main entryway, she locked her gaze on Siena’s.

A shiver ran down her spine. That was not a friendly look. Jamie should have known better than to think that Siena wouldn’t feel slighted or upset by what had happened. She should have prepared to grovel or beg again or something. But instead, she was stuck right next to Jessie and she didn’t hear a damn thing that Harley was chattering on about.

“I didn’t expect to see you here.” Siena’s cool tones rocked through Jamie.

“I was uh… helping Jessie set up for tonight.” Jamie threw her thumb over her shoulder, but she didn’t turn to look at the stage. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the brooding woman in front of her.

“Figures.” Siena leaned in and brushed her lips against Tori’s cheek. “Good to see you.”

“Mommy!” Harley squealed and raced up to Siena, wrapping her arms around Siena’s legs. “You’re going to love tonight.” She giggled.

“I have no doubt of that,” Siena said, but she was cringing. Jamie didn’t blame her. She’d helped Jessie with most of the concerts in the last few years, and each time she went home wondering if her eardrums would ever recover. Though it wasn’t as bad as the fourth and fifth grade band and orchestra concerts. Those were just hands down brutal.

“Where do you need to go to get ready, kiddo?” Siena asked.

“She needs to go to our classroom,” Jessie stepped in. She held out her hand for Harley. “Come on, why don’t we go see who else is here already. ”

Jamie was about to walk away, but she couldn’t. Siena’s eyes were locked on hers again, and she was frozen in place. Tori took Rebel from Miranda’s arms and bounced a little with her. She leaned over, bending down with Rebel and making her squeal with delight.

“Thanks,” Miranda murmured.

Siena flicked her gaze to them before drawing right back to Jamie. What the hell was going on? Why couldn’t she speak? She wasn’t ever speechless. She always had words. Words were her life. And now she was stuck here, staring at Siena like she was dumb, and she couldn’t even manage to figure out how to make her feet and legs move so she could get away.

“How long do these usually last?” Siena asked.

Jamie pursed her lips. “Why? Can’t spare more than an hour for your daughter?”

Tori tensed, and she looked directly at Jamie. Even Miranda looked uncomfortable with that comment. Jamie hadn’t meant for it to come out of her mouth with so much vehemence, but she couldn’t help it. Not with the way that Siena had talked about time so often, about how Jamie was wasting her time, about how valuable her hours were.

“So an hour?” Siena answered, raising an eyebrow as her eyes locked on Jamie’s in a challenge.

Of course she would be the one to keep her cool during this entire debacle. Jamie was going to make an ass of herself, again, and Siena was going to come out the winner. That was how every single conversation had gone between them so far, hadn’t it?

“Yes, about an hour,” Jamie mumbled under her breath.

She finally looked around, really needing to escape this entire situation. She definitely should have told Jessie that she couldn’t help her tonight. Either that or she should have left while she had the chance. Not to mention, she’d lost her safety blanket of a sister already .

She started to walk away, not saying anything else, but Siena caught her wrist and pulled her back. Siena looked at Tori and Miranda and smiled. “Save me a seat, would you?”

“Sure,” Tori answered, smiling as she turned away to find seats for all of them.

Siena pulled at Jamie’s wrist and started to drag her down the hallway and away from where everyone was coming in. “Where are we going?” Jamie asked.

“I don’t know what that was about.” Siena spun around, dropping Jamie’s hand and shoving hers into the pockets of her jacket. “But I don’t appreciate it.”

“Appreciate it?” Jamie scoffed. “So high and mighty, aren’t you?”

Siena narrowed her eyes. “Look, we need to talk. But now isn’t the time or the place.”

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Please.” Siena’s tone softened then, and it sounded far more like a request than it did a demand. That was something that Jamie could maybe handle. Except she wasn’t sure what she’d do or say or how bad it was going to get if she let herself loose around Siena.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Where were you?” Siena asked, her voice firm and commanding again. “For the interview.”

Jamie clenched her molars tightly and shook her head. “You didn’t want me to do the interview anyway. So what does it matter?”

“It matters.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Jamie hardened her entire body. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to help my sister.”

She didn’t wait around. Immediately, Jamie turned on her toes and walked away from Siena and toward Jessie’s classroom. She was too scared to look as soon as she stepped into the kindergarten classroom to see if Siena was still staring at her down the hallway, but she swore she felt Siena’s eyes still on her.

She was playing a dangerous game with potentially ticking Siena off, but she needed to. For her own self-preservation. She’d already kicked off Jessie’s plan, and this was her unofficial add to it. She needed to make a name for herself, figure out her own career, and she needed to do it all on her own. It wasn’t about favors. It was about skill and passion.

“Everything good?” Jessie said quietly.

“Yeah, everything’s peachy.” Jamie winced. But more kids were dropped off. Immediately she walked over to the small table that Jessie had set up with coloring supplies and went to entertain the kids until it was their turn to go onto the stage and sing. She could do this. She could be the sister she always wanted to be, and eventually, she could be the journalist that she’d always dreamed of.