wearing sleep shorts and a tank top, but still.
“Can you take me over to Dad’s?” Jeffrey’s hair is still wet from the shower, and he smells like he was involved in an explosion of the men’s fragrance department at Macy’s.
“Now?” Lila’s dreaded party isn’t until tomorrow night.
Jeffrey blows air out through puffed cheeks. “Yeah, I decided I want to go now and stay over.”
“Mom’s at work, isn’t she? I don’t have a car.”
“Can’t you get Seth or Mel or someone to drive me?”
I shake my head, totally confused. Jeffrey hates going over to Dad’s house, the same way I hated going over to Dad’s house before I turned sixteen and opted out of the whole stupid custody arrangement. “Why do you want to go over there early?”
Jeffrey shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s boring here.”
I roll over, turning my back to him. “Give me a break, Jeffrey. You’re twelve and you’re on summer vacation. You’re supposed to be bored.”
He doesn’t move for a few seconds, and then he walks out of the room. “Shut the door!” I yell, but he doesn’t. I hear rustling in his room, the squeak of the drawers in his old dresser. Footsteps coming down the hallway, passing by my open door.
“I’m going to Seth’s to ask him to drive me,” Jeffrey calls, already pounding down the stairs.
“What? Jeffrey, don’t you dare!” The front door slams.
I leap out of bed and sprint down the hallway, using the handrails on either side of the stairs to swing down and jump the last four. Peering out the window, I see Jeffrey is already halfway across the street, his backpack slung over his shoulder, his skateboard tucked under his arm.
“God damn it.” I shove my feet into a pair of old flip-flops and go outside, standing on the cement front step.
“Jeffrey!” I call, beckoning for him to come back. “Get over here!”
He turns around and waves, a cocky grin spreading over his face. “Sorry, I can’t hear you!”
By the time I shuffle across the street, Jeffrey is standing at Seth’s door. “I already rang the doorbell,” he says calmly as I come up behind him and grab his elbow, squeezing as hard as I can.
“Get back inside,” I say between gritted teeth. I pull on Jeffrey’s arm, but he brushes me aside easily. When did he get to be so strong?
“Get off me!” Jeffrey says as I pull on his backpack, leaning all my weight onto it so he staggers backward. Just as I’m about to tip him off the step and onto the sidewalk, Seth opens the door.
“Hey,” he says, his eyes widening. I let go of Jeffrey and cross my arms over my chest.
“Hi, Seth,” Jeffrey says. “My sister wanted to ask you if you could drive me over to my dad’s house since our mom’s not home and we don’t have a car.”
Seth turns his green eyes on me, and I shake my head. “You don’t have to,” I say. I poke Jeffrey in his side. “He can wait until Mom brings the car back.”
Jeffrey gives me an evil look. “Actually, it’s kind of important that I go now.”
I sigh and push my hair out of my face, remembering only as I’m doing it that I need to keep my arms over my chest to hide the fact that I’m not wearing a bra. “Seriously, Seth, he’s being a total brat. Don’t drive him anywhere.”
Seth looks back and forth between the two of us and shrugs. “Sure, I guess I can take him.”
Jeffrey smiles and elbows me in the ribs. I swat his arm away. “Well, I’m coming too,” I say, putting as much authority into my voice as I can. “Just give me five minutes to get changed.”
I turn away and pull my shorts down over my thighs, feeling Seth’s eyes on me as I hurry back to our house.
“Thanks for making me look like an idiot, Jeffrey,” I mutter as I dig through my mostly empty drawers. With the majority of my clothes still in the laundry from my cleaning binge the other day, the best I can come up with is a too-small sports bra, a paint-spattered T-shirt I used to wear to do crafts with Mom, and long basketball shorts that might actually belong to my brother. I can already imagine the stink-eye I’m going to get from Dad for showing up at his palace looking like an artistically challenged middle-school boy.
you are in deep shit, I text to Jeffrey. He sends back