What are you doing in Italy?”
He let out one of those long, pained sighs, like all the air inside him had been released, leaving him completely deflated. It made me feel like it would be a good idea to sit down for the rest of the conversation, so I walked to the couch, lowering myself carefully onto it like the movement might disturb some imaginary sleeping person.
“You can’t tell Mom and Dad,” he said. “Promise me.”
“Jesus, Brody. I’m not gonna rat you out.” I was more hurt by his insinuation than I cared to let on.
“Right. I guess not. Because then I’d tell them you got kicked out of your sorority house.”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose in frustration. “Do we always have to talk in threats? We’re not kids anymore. Can’t we just help each other because we’re family? Just tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s not really that complicated. I just couldn’t do the whole school thing. I thought I could, but I went for like three days before I needed to get away.”
“You’re such a douche.” The comment slipped before I could think about its effect.
“See? Why would I tell you anything?”
It was a valid question. “I’m sorry. Really. I just… I thought you were finally committed to going down the right path.”
“Well, the right path for you may be the wrong path for me. The idea of staying there, trying to become what Dad wants me to be was… It was suffocating, Soph. I needed to get away.”
Oh, the drama. He should’ve been a theater major.
“What are you gonna do about your classes? Dad’ll find out you’ve been dropped from every course because you haven’t shown up.”
“That won’t happen.”
I laughed out loud. He’d really lost it. “How could it not?”
“Because my teachers think I’m showing up to my classes.”
My eyes locked with the person who’d claimed to be Brody, and suddenly it all clicked. I pulled the phone away from my ear.
“What’s your real name?” I asked the stranger. “When you’re not pretending to be my brother?”
He hesitated like the admission might cause him serious harm.
“Drew Nolan.”
Now my attention went back to Brody. “And how much are you paying Mr. Nolan to live your life for you while you’re across an ocean drinking wine and eating pizza?”
“If that’s all you think Italians do, you’re the one who should be traveling.” When I didn’t reply, he spoke again. “I’m not paying him. Just giving him a place to stay and a chance to learn something about business. It was kind of a mutual exchange.”
“Right. So you get to travel around Europe, and Drew gets to learn macroeconomics. Seems like a fair trade.”
Drew was pacing now.
“I don’t need to justify my choices to my little sister.”
“No. I guess you don’t. But you’ll need to justify them to Mom and Dad when they find out what you’re doing. And they will find out eventually. I get that you’re new to this campus, but you actually think that your teachers won’t notice another person pretending to be you?”
“They haven’t yet. He looks enough like me to fool people who’ve only known me a couple of days.”
“And what about your social media accounts? You think when Drew meets friends here they aren’t gonna check out his Instagram and see that there’s another person on there?”
“Have you been on lately?”
Of course I hadn’t been. I wasn’t even sure why I followed him. I didn’t care what he was up to. “No.” I put him on speakerphone and pulled up his Instagram page. All I saw were pictures of places, sporting events, other people. There were a few of Brody, but they were from far enough away that he could’ve easily been Drew, or vice versa, especially to someone who didn’t know them well. “You really deleted all the pictures of yourself?”
“Yeah. I’m not an idiot. Reckless and impulsive maybe, but not an idiot.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Reckless and impulsive are a definite, not a maybe.”
“I won’t argue with that.” We were both quiet for a moment, and then Brody said, “Guess you can stay there if you don’t have any other place to go.”
“You think I’d want to live with you if I did?”
“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not there. I don’t exactly wanna live with you either. I’m sure Drew’ll see what I’m talking about soon enough.”
“He’s not staying,” I said adamantly.
“Ha! You say that like it’s your choice. Just because you don’t have a place to live doesn’t