Page 116 of Wild Like Us

“Akara is more like family,” Winona says. “But if he screws with you, he’ll have to go through me.”

“Banks’ brother is about to literallybefamily,” I remind her.

She stares off, thinking. “I don’t know, I just feel different about Akara. It feels like he’s always been around us. He’s like Moffy, and I wouldn’t care if Moffy overheard us.”

I recoil. “Akara isnotrelated to us. He’s not our brother.”

She bites into the bagel. “But he kinda is.” She freezes. “Why do you look so freaked out? Sulli?”

“It’s just fucking disturbing that you think Akara is abrotherto me.”

Winona chews her bite of bagel slowly. “Do you have a crush on him?Sul.” Her eyes widen. “Why didn’t you tell me—?”

“I’ve just never thought of Kits like a brother,” I interject, feeling more like the younger sister when I’m six fucking yearsolder. Maybe she can tell I’m not ready to talk about Kits, because she doesn’t press or pry.

She smiles. “Got it.” She bites another hunk of bagel. She’d totally be Team Akara if she knew my dilemma.

It’s not their choice.

It’s mine.

I know.

I know.

Winona asks, “What kind of asses have you been eating that made you a convert?”

“Jerky asses, nice asses. Turns out, I’m not that picky.”

Winona raises her glass. “Cheers to the nice asses.”

I mime a glass and knock mine with the camera. “What’s up with you, squirt? How’s school going?” She talks for a while about douchebags in their classes. How with all the babes (aka the girl squad) in high school together now, along with Ben Cobalt, more eyes are on them in the hallways and classrooms.

“Mom and Dad miss you a bunch too,” Winona says. “They keep buying donuts even though you aren’t here, so hey, I figure they’re doing better than when you first moved out. We had like five stale boxes in the kitchen then. Now we just have three. None of us eat them as fast as you.”

The pang of homesickness returns tenfold.

I tell my sister I miss all of them. And I love them.

Not long after we hang up, Luna calls me.

Another FaceTime.

Only when I click into the video, I’m greeted by a potato. More specifically, Luna is a potato. She turned on a phone-filter, and I instantly laugh.

I change my filter to a tree. And we chat as a potato and tree for a few minutes. Catching up. She tells me about online college courses.

I tell her about the cougar attack, since no one has told her yet.

“No way,” she inhales. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just a bad cut. Kits has the worst damage.” We chat for a couple more minutes, before I glance through a shrub and see a pair of Vans movingfasttowards the corkboard.Akara.“Hey, I gotta go, Luna.”

We say fast goodbyes, and I jolt up to a stance.

Akara rolls to a stop next to the corkboard. Banks is further away now. So I focus on Kits. Who breathes hard like he sprinted here.

“Sulli.” He holds a hand out like he means to explain more.