Free House of Slide Hybrid by Juliann Whicker Page B

believe that anyone can be as truly oblivious as you are, but there you are.”
    I frowned at her, but she seemed unaware that she’d just insulted me. Again. “So, what are you going to buy?”
    “Who knows, a pair of boots if I can find anything I like, but what about you and Osmond?”
    “Me and…” I trailed off, not quite capable of saying those two words in the same sentence, however short it was.
    “You like him, I don’t care if it was hallucination inspired, I saw the way you looked when he put his hand on your shoulder—like you were about to swoon. Tell me that you don’t like him.”
    I shrugged. “Doesn’t everyone like him? He’s pretty nice, right?”
    “Please. I think that if I suggested it, he would ask you to the Valentine’s dance.”
    “No,” I said, grabbing her arm, feeling a rush of humiliation. “He would only ask me out of pity because I’m Devlin’s little sister, not because he likes, me. Besides, I think someone else was going to ask me.”
    “Who?” she asked, looking at me for too long before she returned her gaze to the road that was dry in spite of the snow piled on either side of it.
    “Um, I forget his name, but in English class, we talk a lot, and I think he mentioned something about the dance, so I will definitely be very excited to see him Monday. He’s nice.”
    “Not as nice as Osmond. No one is though. It’s a pity that I don’t like him, I used to try to, but it’s not like that with us, kind of thought you’d be like that, but this is better. Healthy.”
    “Everyone likes Osmond, Snowy. It’s stupid to think that I’m smart for liking someone everyone else likes when I’m so…not like everyone else.”
    “You do like him!” she crowed, like she hadn’t already deduced that fifteen times. I rolled my eyes. “Maybe he likes you, at least, maybe he’d like you if he thought about you like that, which he probably hasn’t, I mean, can’t think about you like that when you were a zombie, and not when you had Lewis’ soul, and not when you’re all depressed and obsessed with the guy who didn’t actually exist, but now, if you’re actually more you, maybe he’d like you.” She sounded less and less certain as she went on.
    I chortled, and shook my head. “Snowy, the chances of Osmond liking me in my pony shirts and braids is so slim, it’s laughable, and the thing is, I’m going to be this, whatever it is I am, whether or not people like it. Maybe I’ll like Osmond, and it’ll be the crush I should’ve had in third grade, and it will be best if he doesn’t like me. I seriously can’t handle the thought of anything intense between us. It’s overwhelmingly goo-brain-inducing to see him all muscly and stuff. I think that I’d faint if he actually did something romantic.”
    She glanced at me, a glance that was analyzing my argument for flaws she could work with. “Fine,” she said at last. “I won’t tell Osmond that he should like you, and you can live in your little pink crush world until you get over it. Hopefully the Osmond thing will last because he’s really a good guy, not just crush worthy, but an honest to goodness person you could be happy with.”
    “Like Smoke?” I asked.
    “Smoke is…” she frowned as she thought about it. “Maybe. I used to know him so well. Now, I’m not sure anyone knows who they are, not since your brother…anyway, we’ll have to see.”
    “I could tell Smoke that he should ask you to Valentine’s,” I offered.
    She laughed, like I’d said something hilarious then when she finally stopped cackling, she started talking about her wardrobe and what she was looking for to fill in the supposed gaps. I didn’t ask her how she could have gaps in something that was so clearly full, at least her closet had been the last time I’d seen it.
    When we got to the city, she drove a few blocks down from where the building had been, the building my mother had basically taken out, well, we’d all