Free Then I Met My Sister by Christine Hurley Deriso Page A

you, Leah!”
    I raise an eyebrow. Oh, God. Leah.
    I sigh and walk toward the front, too.
    “Hi, Summer,” Leah says with a stiff little smile. “You’re working here?”
    I nod. “How about you? What’re you doing this summer?”
    She shrugs. “Volunteer work, cheerleading camp. Oh, and Beta Club stuff. Hey, speaking of which, are you going to the conference in August?”
    “I’m not in Beta Club,” I remind her.
    “Oh, right. Hey, how do you think you did on your finals?”
    I dig my nails into my palms. “Okay.”
    She offers a fake smile. “ Great ! Good for you! Wasn’t it sweet of Gibs to help you study?”
    I wrinkle my nose.
    “And if we’re lucky,” Leah says, “it kept him from studying too hard for his finals! I’m still in the running for valedictorian, but these honors classes—phew! I mean, I’m sure they’re no tougher than your classes are to you … I mean, everything’s relative …”
    “Mmmmm. Say, are you still dating Justin?”
    Leah’s eyes fall, and I actually feel a little guilty. Word has already spread that Justin dumped her a couple days ago.
    “No, we broke up,” she says.
    Aunt Nic smiles sympathetically. My muscles tighten a little. I’m hard-pressed to say I feel sorry for her—she certainly has never mustered any sympathy for me —but she does look awfully sad right now.
    “Sorry,” I say.
    “Oh, boyfriends are a dime a dozen,” Aunt Nic says cheerily. “You’ll move on to the next guy and make him eat his heart out.”
    Leah blushes and smiles. “Well … ” she says, “are my mom’s flowers ready?”
    “Oh, right!” Aunt Nic walks toward a refrigerator and pulls out a gargantuan spray of pink and purple flowers. I eye the amaranthus and sneeze.
    “Big party?” Nic asks absently as she rings up the order.
    “My birthday party,” Leah responds. “Mom goes a little overboard on everything. She invited, like, half the high school.” She blushes suddenly as her faux pas registers, then offers me a nervous smile. I avert my gaze.
    “Well … thanks,” Leah sputters, then grabs the vase. “Bye.” I wave my fingers loosely as she walks out of the shop.
    Aunt Nic crosses her arms and looks at me. “Not on the guest list?” she asks, wrinkling her nose.
    “Go figure.”
    She looks at me closely. “What happened to you two? You used to be such good friends.”
    I shake my head. “Not really. Even when we were younger, she made sure I knew she was out of my league.”
    “No!” Aunt Nic protests. “You were wonderful friends!”
    I smile and roll my eyes. “O- kay .” I’m used to our family defining wonderful as how they want things to be. Whatever.
    “Hope she has fun at her party,” I say as I head toward the back of the shop, then mutter under my breath, “Maybe the amaranthus will make her break out in hives.”

Thirteen
    W hoosh.
    Chugga, chugga, chugga.
    Whoosh.
    Chooga, chooga, chooga .
    I pry my eyes open, squinting to adjust to the sunlight streaming through my blinds on this bright Sunday morning.
    Mom’s running the dishwasher. I groan. I’m used to it at night, but not in the morning. For some reason, it sounds as loud as a freight train at this hour. What better way to start off one of the few mornings I can actually sleep in?
    I spend a couple of minutes trying to get back to sleep, but it’s impossible. I roll my eyes and prop my pillow against my headboard. Gibs and I are meeting for burgers later, but I’ve got time to kill for now, so …
    I reach under my mattress for Shannon’s journal. I press my lips together as my stomach muscles tighten, then open it to her next entry.
Monday, June 7, 1993
Confession: The shrink isn’t nearly as hideous as I expected.
I thought he’d start our “session” by asking, “How does that make you feel?” any time I told him anything. But instead he told me he was a Deadhead, then talked about all the concerts he’s been to. He showed me a picture on his desk of him with Jerry