Free Dirty Kisses by Addison Moore Page A

active in.” Lies, all lies, I tell you, but I’m pretty determined to turn this shitty semester around, and if befriending Owen’s little sister is the only way I can do it, then so be it.
    “That’s very nice of you, but I have a big sister.” She accepts her coffee before taking a careful sip. “She’s in prison for murder one. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” She finds a seat at the nearest table, and I plop down opposite her.
    “I know all about your sister.” Sadly, this is true. It’s horrific what Aubree Vincent did, pushing that poor girl off a cliff, then trying to cover it up as a suicide. She tried to kill Baya, the waitress from the Black Bear, too. Just the thought gives me the shivers. “I’m really sorry.”
    “And I know all about you .” Her brows twitch as she pulls out her phone and proceeds to ignore me.
    “Yes, well, everyone seems to know about me these days. I’ve pretty much screwed myself over for life, or at least at the moment.” The thought of my own weighted reality takes over, and the last place I want to be is anywhere. Suddenly, I’m far too dejected to be anybody’s cheerleader. For sure, I don’t qualify as a life coach. “That whole little sister thing is just a joke,” I say weakly. “I could never be anybody’s role model.” Tears come and blur my vision. “For sure, I’m no mentor. Trust me, whatever I do, you’ll want to do the opposite.”
    Those serious eyes of hers narrow over me with concern, and now it’s me standing to make a break for it.
    “Wait!” She pulls me back into my seat, and I see her for the first time like a person, not some sibling extension of Owen. Ava is cute with her cherry-stained lips and overdrawn eyes. Her dark hair lies thick and long over her shoulders in simple waves. She offers a spontaneous, yet pained smile, exposing a double row of tiny pearly white teeth. Ava is the quintessential little sister, and something in my heart melts for her as if she were my own relation. “I know how you feel. Well, a little. I mean, it must be pretty shitty for the entire world to know what you’ve done. And you gotta figure crap like that will stink up your future for some time to come.”
    “Yes.” I give a furtive nod because she totally gets me in a way that not even my friends were able to articulate moments before.
    “The good news is, you didn’t kill anyone. So prison is off the short list of places you’ll be.” She gives a sly wink, and a dry laugh rumbles through me. “With me, I’ve always been known as the killer’s sister. I’ve never been Ava. And now, here I am at the same university my big brother is at, and suddenly I’m Owen’s little sister.” She shakes her head while losing her gaze out the darkened window. “I guess I thought I would finally get a chance to be Ava for once.”
    “Oh, sweetie!” I pull her into a warm hug, and she doesn’t fight it. Ava pats my back as if she were hugging me right back to let me know she’s here for me. I stand and cinch my backpack over my shoulder. “Maybe somehow you and I can muddle through this next semester? You can learn to be you, and I can learn to dodge the press and stay out of old men’s laps.” I lean in. “Not a thing they said was true.” My mouth opens to say something else, and nothing comes out. “Okay, a few of the things they said were true, but that’s neither here nor there.” We share a quick laugh as I head for the exit. “If you see me around, don’t be a stranger!”
    “I won’t!” she shouts back like she means it.
    A part of me feels guilty for pigeonholing her as Owen’s little sister—as Aubree Vincent’s little sister. I’m just now discovering how it feels to live under a huge ominous shadow—that of my own.
    Who knew I would turn out to be my biggest curse?

    T he house is dark except for the television winking in a morbid rainbow in the living room. Not surprisingly, Jet Madden’s television is as large as both his