Free Everything by Jeri Williams

pal” from work. I always got the feeling she didn’t like me, and the feeling was mutual.
    “Hey, Shannon, what’s up?” Trevor said as he leaned back and lazily put his arm around my shoulders.
    “Just picking up a to-go order. Thought I’d come over while I wait.” Shannon had a reputation in town that was opposite of the town saint.
    “Hey, Shannon,” I said sweetly. “How’s it going?”
    She just smiled at me, then turned her attention back to Trevor. “So, that dog today with the broken leg? Crazy, huh, what some people will do to their dogs?”
    “Well, you know they mean well,” he said diffidently, squeezing me closer to him. Clearly, he got what she was implying. So did Aria, and she was silently fuming.
    “So Shannon, how’s Heather?” Aria cut in. She knew Shannon’s sister as they had gone to high school together.
    “She’s good. She went to college in Orlando. You know, bigger town and all. Bigger is better,” she said, eyeing Trevor.
    “What, is that your motto?” muttered Aria.
    “What did you say to me, you little—”
    “Watch it, Shannon,” I cut her off.  
    “Okay,” Trevor stretched out. “As much fun as this is to watch, Shannon, I think your order is up. I’ll see you at work.”  
    She huffed away, muttering under her breath.
    “What was that about?” Trevor asked, looking at me. But it was Aria who spoke up first.
    “Did you hear what that heifer said?” she shrieked. “What she was implying? She can’t say that about my family, and we all know she was mostly implying it about Dac.” The last part she said with even breaths.  
    As I sat back and studied her, my chest filled with pride over the way she reacted to the play-on-words attack. I idly thought that I probably shouldn’t encourage this kind of behavior from her, but oh well.
    “I’ll talk to her. I’m sure that’s not what she was getting at about Dac. Although I’m sure she meant to imply it about Opal,” he said, looking at me apologetically. He then looked at Aria. “Man, you get touchy about your sister. How did I not know this?” He seemed amused now.
    “Easy. You’ve never done anything to purposely hurt my sister,” she said, back to her normal self. “If you do, you better not run into me, buddy. You’ve been warned.” She pointed her fork at him for emphasis.
    “I don’t plan on hurting her, but duly noted.” He leaned over and kissed me on my forehead, saying, “And you, I thought I was going see WWE live if I didn’t shoo her away.”
    “She was about to say something to Aria my fist wouldn’t have liked,” I said simply.
    He laughed harder.
    “What’s so funny?” I asked.
    “You two. You both would do bodily harm to someone over implications and words?”
    “Yeah,” said Aria. “So?”
    “You don’t think that’s overreacting just a tad bit?” He had stopped laughing.
    “No,” we both said in unison.
    “Whoa! Your mom was right—that is weird,” he muttered.
    “She’s my sister. Why not protect her to the best of my ability?” I said.
    “Yeah, what she said,” said Aria.
    “Okay, okay,” he conceded. “I don’t have any siblings, so I don’t know the special bond you two share. I won’t pretend to understand.”
    “Oooh, what if you had a sister? We could be best friends, then sisters when you two get married!” Aria clapped her hands excitedly.
    “Now you sound like Mom.” I rolled my eyes. “And I think the ship has sailed on that one, little sister.”
    “I know, right?” She laughed.
    Trevor just shook his head.  
    We finished our dinner with no more interruptions. We parted ways with Aria and made our way back to my dorm room.
    “Are you staying the night?” I asked as I grabbed my shower caddy so that I could take a shower.
    “Do you want me to?”
    “I always want you to, but can I make a request?” I stopped at the door.
    “Anything,” he said, as he started to get comfortable for the night.
    “Can you not be asleep