Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"What are you doing home?" I asked when I walked in the front door. I paused in the entry to untie my boots and leave them to dry on the tile. I'd seen my sister's car out front and now she sat on the couch, her phone held up in front of her like she'd been watching TikToks or reading emails or something.

"Hey, just came home for a long weekend."

"I wouldn't call Wednesday a weekend."

"My Thursday class got canceled and I don't have classes on Friday. Hence the long in my use of the word weekend. Good to see you too."

I smiled then walked over and gave her a hug. "Hi!"

She hugged me back. My sisters and I weren't necessarily super close. We weren't distant, either, though. We were the something-in-between that was produced by a seven-year age gap. Evelyn was a senior in college; that's why I was surprised to see her. She usually didn't come home on a random weekday mid-semester.

"Did The Parents tell you I was throwing a party tonight?" I asked.

"They did. Your anti-love party?"

"Why does everyone think that? It's a pro-self-love party. Pro-singleness."

"Oh, gotcha," she said, but in a wink-wink voice like I really meant anti-love but didn't want to admit it.

"I'm pro-love," I grumbled. "Just anti-forced-celebration." And I shouldn't have had to constantly defend that.

She laughed. "Hang on to that pro-self-love attitude for the next month or so." Her eyes shot to the hallway then back to me.

I looked at the hallway too but it was empty. "Why the next month?"

"Because it's February," she said as if that answered the question.

"O-kay," I said. "Jack is coming in a minute, and I have so much to do."

"Want help?"

"Yes, please," I said. "I have decorations."

"Jacky!" My sister said when he joined us in the basement. We were drawing designs on the chalkboard wall and filling the fridge in the kitchenette with drinks. "You got taller."

"Evelyn," Jack said, giving her a hug. "I didn't know you were coming."

"It was last minute. Ava's coming tomorrow, too." She looked at me for several beats then resumed drawing on the wall with her chalk. She was working on a cat—the mascot of singleness.

"She is?" I asked. "How come nobody told me?"

"You like surprises."

"I hate surprises."

"She does," Jack said.

"Well, you should learn to love them. Life is full of surprises."

"Why are you being so cryptic today?" I asked.

"Am I? I'm not trying to be." She added a heart collar to her cat drawing.

Jack freed a bowl from the bag he was carrying. "I brought fruit."

"Jack likes to bring health to our parties," I said, like we'd had a dozen parties before this and not just one.

"I bring health to your life," he said.

"What?"

"Yeah, I don't know. It sounded better in my head." He slid the fruit into the fridge. "What's new with you, Evelyn?"

"Not much. Last year of college. Then adulthood, I guess. What about you? How's your family?"

"Same," Jack said. They really were the same. His parents still constantly picked at one another, his brother still treated him like garbage, and he still chose to hang out with me most of the time.

I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him playfully against me. "Jack's family is great. We had a picnic a couple weeks ago before the snow storm, we made spaghetti last night because Mom and Dad worked late, and we might ski next weekend."

He chuckled and returned my hug. "Yes, my family is the best."

Evelyn's eyes darted back and forth between the two of us several times before she said, "What else do we need to do?"

I released Jack and went to the game closet, pulling open the doors. A memory of being in there last year with Jack flashed through my mind. Heat rose to my cheeks, surprising me. I ignored it and reached for the game I was looking for. "Let's go through this box and pick out some truth cards for tonight. None to do with relationships."

"We're not playing the same games as last year?" Jack asked.

"Of course not," I said. "Only subpar party-throwers do that. We are experts."

"I think she's been sleeping on a talent," Jack said to Evelyn.

"A party-throwing talent?" Evelyn asked.

"Yes, it's a skill and your sister has it."

"I hear she's your sister too," Evelyn teased.

"She's not," Jack said quickly.

I passed him the box and pointed to the table. "No relationship cards."

"She's my boss," Jack said.

Evelyn laughed.

"This one or this one?" I asked Jack, holding up two shirts. We were in my room after finishing up our prep for the party and I was trying to decide what to wear tonight.

"The blue one. You look good in blue."

"Why thank you." I tossed the shirts onto the chair in the corner and bowed.

"Why are you changing though?"

"I feel gross and sweaty from setting up."

"What about me? Do I need to change? Am I gross and sweaty?"

I walked up to him and stuck my nose on his neck, inhaling. He laughed, his shoulder shooting up as if he was suddenly ticklish.

I stepped back and shrugged. "You smell like Jack."

"Is that a good or a bad thing?"

"It's good. It's that green deodorant you always wear, plus those little scent balls you put in the washing machine."

"That green deodorant?"

"It would be weirder if I knew the name."

"Are you trying to say you're not obsessed with me?"

"Oh, no. I definitely am." I tilted my head to the side. "What about me? Smell me now?"

"I'm not going to smell you. Not after you told me you're gross and sweaty."

I stuck one arm in the air, exposing my arm pit in a threatening fashion.

"Don't," he said, backing up. The bed was behind him though. It hit the back of the knees, forcing him to a sit.

When I reached him, he took me by the waist and flung me onto the bed beside him.

I laughed and lowered my arm. "Fine. You're safe this time."

"Don't pretend like I didn't just win that."

"Was it a game?" I asked with a smirk, rolling off the bed and to my feet. "Speaking of deodorant." I went to my dresser, uncapped my stick of it and applied some.

"Are you nervous about tonight?" he asked. "Having more people here?"

"I don't think so. Not yet. How are we going to know if we have a better turn out than Micah? Should we count? Should we send a spy to his party?"

"This is still about Micah?"

"He's keeping tabs on my love life, Jack. Probably yours too. He needs to be humiliated in some way."

"What's that saying?" he asked. "The best revenge is living well? We should just have fun and not worry about him."

I narrowed my eyes, retrieving the blue shirt from the chair and taking it off its hanger. "Yeah, I don't like that saying. I like the one that goes revenge is best served cold. It's been four years. I think it's cold enough."

"Remind me not to ever get on your bad side. You can hold a grudge."

I could hold a grudge. Especially when it came to someone hurting my friends. That, I rarely let go of. "Get out of here, I need to change."

He walked toward the door.

"Hey Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't get on my bad side."

He picked a scrunchie up off my dresser and flung it at my head as he left my room, heading for the basement.