Strangely Normal - By Tess Oliver Page 0,21
too late. The damage has been done.” She glanced around as if she expected a meteor or massive earthquake any minute.
“Maybe this will be a good thing, Finley.” I knew my words would have little comfort, but I decided to give it a shot. “If nothing happens then you’ll know that you don’t have to tap the planter anymore. It might ease your mind some.”
“Yeah, maybe,” she said with little confidence. She dunked under and wet her hair apparently hoping the cool water would ease her worry. She popped up and smoothed her hair back. “Hey, Eden, thanks for not patronizing me. Most of my friends do that when they see me freak out about something ridiculous. I think that’s why I don’t hang out with many of them anymore. They weren’t willing to put up with my crazy shit, and I wasn’t willing to have them laugh behind my back.”
“It’s not all that crazy, Finley. Everyone has compulsions. I once bought a curling iron at a yard sale. I was so damn excited to get that thing. I’d spend an hour in the morning curling my hair, but even though I always made certain to unplug the thing, I’d check it like ten times before leaving the house. Even then I’d start panicking about it in first period, wondering if I’d truly unplugged it or if I’d be responsible for burning down the entire apartment building. When it finally broke, I was both pissed and relieved. So it’s really not that bad.”
“No, it’s all right. I know I’m batshit crazy. Remind me to show you my collection of voodoo dolls sometime.”
“Voodoo? All right, I don’t have a comparable quirky behavior for voodoo dolls. You’re on your own with that.”
Without warning, she swam over and hugged me.
“Oh, man, I didn’t expect this much fun at the pool.” Cole strutted down the path in a pair of swim trunks and a muscular chest that nearly rivaled his brother’s. He was definitely slighter than Jude but equally handsome. His wrist was wrapped in a support brace.
“Uh, sicko, did you forget I was your sister?”
“Huh?” he asked. “What are you talking about?”
“The girl hug,” Finley said, seemingly forgetting about the moment of anxiety seconds before. “I thought that was what you were commenting on.”
“Nah, I was talking about the goddess standing in our pool.” He smiled my way, and once again, I tried to figure out why it was so familiar. Cole waded into the water.
“Ah, here we go.” Finley looked over at me. “Watch out for floating pieces of bull shit, the master of smarmy flirtation has just entered the pool.”
“Hey, where’s the sympathy for an injured man? The doc said it was one of the worst he’d seen yet.”
“Did he also advise you not to use one hand to stop your entire body from crashing to earth?”
“No, that I learned on my own. Although, it’s easier to pop a wrist back into place than a head, so I think I’ll keep using my hand.”
I floated onto my back. “Back at school, I was dating a football player, and he had a constant string of injuries. Didn’t seem worth it to me. I mean the guy is going to have major arthritis pain before he hits forty.”
“Ah ha, I thought you looked like the type of girl who hung out with the jocks,” Cole said.
I pushed my feet down and smiled at him. “Sorry, but you’re wrong. I’ve always been much more interested in the chess club guys than the jocks.”
“As long as the chess players are hot,” Finley interjected.
“Well, hotness does help,” I admitted.
Cole swam over to the small island in the center of the pool and pulled himself up onto it. Jude had had the band logo, a pair of black wings, tattooed across his shoulders, but Cole had the words Black Thunder across his. He spun around and sat down with his long legs hanging in the water. “You’re the one that said you were dating a football player. Don’t tell me the guy played chess too.”
“I guess that would be a rarity. No, he was your typical jock, and he was one of my biggest high school regrets.”
Finley joined Cole on the island. “Aside from walking into my aunt’s office with a joint on your backpack.”
“Yeah, I guess that was also quite regrettable.”
“Wait a minute—” Sunlight radiated off of Cole’s white smile. “You walked into Aunt Julie’s office with a joint on your backpack?” He laughed. “That is