Page 28 of Offsides

I narrow my eyes. “Yeees,” I say slowly. “Why?”

Her smile turns coy. “No reason. Anything interesting happen?”

Reaching for a pen, I use that to mark my place and set my book aside, placing my feet on the floor and leaning forward. “What do you know, Autumn?”

“Moi?” She even goes so far as to lay a hand on her chest, as though so shocked that I would accuse her of anything. “What makes you think that I know anything?”

I circle my finger in the air in front of her. “Allll of this. You’re being very sus right now. Why would you care at all about my bio class, for one thing? And why would you ever ask if anything interesting happened? You’ve never asked me that before. Not like this anyway. Unless you have reason to believe something interesting was supposed to happen …”

I’m well aware that Autumn likes to meddle in people’s lives. She says she’s helping. And who knows? Maybe she is actually helpful. But now that I’m the recipient? I’m not sure I like it.

“Autumn.” I put all the command behind her name my father always does when he’s trying to get me to do something. It’s almost always worked on me, after all. “What did you do?”

She waves a hand, as though brushing away my question. Unfortunately, that voice never worked particularly well on my sister, and Autumn is a lot more like Anita than me.

“Oh, nothing,” she says breezily. “But I was at Jackson’s the other day, and Eli said he felt bad about what happened at the party over the weekend, and”—she shrugs—“I may have made a suggestion or two about how he could make it up to you.”

Her bright, mischievous eyes give away that she did more than make a suggestion or two. She’s scheming. And I’m somehow caught in the middle of this.

“You suggested he get me a gift card so I can buy makeup?”

“Maaaaybe.”

I roll my eyes. “You realize that never fools anyone, right?”

She huffs and smacks a hand lightly on the arm of the couch. “You realize you’re picking this apart and ruining the fun, right?”

“How is this fun, though?” I ask, pulling the card out from under my book and brandishing it at her. “Shopping and makeup and stuff has never been my idea of fun.”

“Please. Everyone likes treating themselves. I think you could make it fun if you decided to. Take someone you’ll have fun with and even boring chores can be fun.”

Frowning, I stare at the plastic rectangle in my hand. She does make a good point, actually. Dishes and chores around the house are more entertaining when we all do them together. Usually Piper turns it into some kind of competition where we divide the common areas between us and see who can finish cleaning the fastest. She has some kind of metric she uses so we all get a similar amount of mess, rather than a similar amount of space. Some spaces get messier than others, after all. Most of the time Piper or I win, but every once in a while Ellie manages to get through her section fastest. I don’t think Autumn’s ever won. She cleans, still. But she’s not so motivated by a competition whose only reward is bragging rights.

“Besides,” Autumn puts in, breaking into my thoughts, “you’ve let me do your hair and makeup twice now in a matter of weeks. You can use that to get some of your own products. I’ll help you, either by going with you or making a list of products you might want if you decide to take … someone else.” The last bit is accompanied by an eyebrow wiggle, Autumn’s version of a wink and a nudge.

“Ha. And what ‘someone else’ might you be referring to?” I ask, my voice dripping with feigned innocence.

Smirking, she shakes her head. “I’m sure Eli offered.”

“Because that was part of the suggestion, I’m assuming.”

Autumn sits up straight, her tone prim. “I can neither confirm nor deny anything.”

“Uh-huh. That might as well be a written and signed confession.”

She says nothing, just stares at me with that same mischievous expression, her lips pressed firmly together.

Sighing, I look at the card again. “You think I should go with Eli?”

She shrugs.

“He wouldn’t know what I should get, though.”

Another shrug. “I offered to make you a list,” she reminds me softly.

“True.” I contemplate that for a moment, then raise my eyes to hers again. “What would you do? If you were me, if your best guy friend had treated you the way Eli’s treated me, how would you respond to this?” I hold up the card again.

She opens her mouth, sucking in a breath to answer, then her eyebrows crimp and she deflates, her mouth closing. Her brow still furrowed, she props her chin on her fist and looks me over. “You know? I don’t really know.”

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