Page 68 of Losing Faith

I roll my eyes at her as I take the pictures from her. “If I didn’t want you around me, you wouldn’t be here.” I stick the picture back onto my mirror.

A small smile touches her lips, but she doesn’t look convinced. I shake my head at her as I open the drawer in front of us. She looks down and a genuine smile touches her lips as she picks up a picture of us eating ice cream a few weeks ago.

The next picture she grabs is of her driving for the first time in my car. She stifles a laugh as she grabs a picture of her sleeping with Piglet on her forehead.

“You’re my life too.” I pick up an older picture and she lets out a gasp as she grabs it.

“Is this us?” She pouts as she focuses on younger me holding her as a baby.

“I never forgot about you, Harmony, and if I knew you were back at that house after your mom got clean, then I would’ve gone back for you. I didn’t see you after this day because your grandma took you and I had no clue where she lived.”

She keeps her eyes on the picture. “Why did you print all of these?” She looks back at the drawer and shuffles through more pictures of her and my other siblings.

“I like to keep my reason close.”

“Reason for what?”

“To stay sober.”

Tears build in her eyes before she pulls me in for a hug.

“Don’t ruin your makeup after I just spent an hour on it.” I shake my head at her and she lets out a laugh as she pulls away to fan her eyes. She looks back in the mirror with a smile as I continue working on her hair.

“Jackson kissed me,” I voice when the brief silence starts to feel too heavy.

Her brows furrow before a smile touches her lips. “Iknewhe liked you.”

“It wasn’t justanykiss.” I shake my head at myself as images of his hands on me come in flashes. “It was a fuck me against the hood of this car, kind of kiss. Like, please keep kissing me, I’d rather this than air.”

“Oh.” She nods as she smiles at me in the mirror but she looks worried. “I didn’t know kissing was that good?” She looks down in thought now. “Am I kissing wrong?”

“Kissing him is that good,” I say more to myself.

“AmIa bad kisser?” Her brows furrow as she looks at herself in the mirror. “What am I doing wrong?” she nearly whispers.

“But that was a few days ago and he’s ignoring me.” I shake my head at my reflection, more disappointed by how annoyed I am by this.

She lets out a gasp as she looks up at me. “What an asshole.”

I roll my eyes at myself. “Okay, he’s notignoringme, but I was supposed to go over yesterday for tutoring and he canceled at the last minute viatext.”

“Well, what’d he say?”

I recite the message from memory since I’ve been picking it apart for the last twenty-four hours. “Canceling tutoring today. My mom wanted to see your favorite student. Sorry for the short notice.”

Her face scrunches. “Sorry for theshort notice?” she mocks. “Is this a fucking email? Ew, why is he being so formal?”

“Formal is bad, right?”

“Uh, yeah.” She shakes her head at me. “You’re going over today, right?”

I nod in return as I finish up her hair.

“Okay well, wear a cute outfit and act like nothing happened. Don’t even bring up the kiss or the text. Just walk in, say hi to him if you normally do, and go straight for the kid.”

I hum in thought, and I probably shouldn’t take advice from a seventeen-year-old, but I go into my closet and change my baggy clothes into something cuter.

After I get her stamp of approval, I drop her off at her friend’s birthday party before heading over to Jackson’s.

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