Page 10 of Double Trouble

“It’s sooo boring,” she sighs, her voice ending in a low growl. I chuckle and move around the Beanie Boo display and check out the many sets of clip-on earrings. I never did get around to piercing my ears. Not too high up on my priorities. Demi, however, is ready for the piercings.

“What’s boring about laser tag? Or paintballing? Or arcades?”

She rolls her head toward me, giving me her eleven-year-old sass that she’s had since she was six. “If I had money to do those things, I’d probably have fun.”

I stick my tongue out at her and wrinkle my nose. She’s a lot stricter about paying for the fun stuff than I am. Since Pete took a job there and Tanner and I became buddy buddy, I haven’t paid a penny for my boarding time. But when Candace found out Pete was letting Demi ride the rollercoaster for free and giving her free tokens for the arcade and slapping a wristband on her to let her bowl or do the zombie theater, she was appalled. Demi may have overheard the argument, in which Candace promised she’d pay for all of those things so no one got in trouble, and Pete refused to let Candace pay for anything. It’s an argument they have often, but Demi isn’t always so involved.

She crawled into my bedroom that night, and I handed over my extra earbud. We watched boarding vids and makeup tutorials—for her, not me—for the rest of the night. Demi never talked to Pete about it. She just told him she’d rather stay at home after school instead of tagging along with either of us to Troublemakers.

For a while she would sit and watch me board in the Wheel Zone, scrolling through her hand-me-down phone and occasionally chatting with Tanner. But when that became too boring, she opted to stay put at the apartment.

Most nights Pete is there with her. But now with Tanner being willing to help me out, I can work late at the ranch, hang out with Demi until ten when she’s conked out, and then jet over for some boarding time.

And ignore the fact that I’m a super awful person for taking advantage of Tanner’s kindness.

I pull out a pair of clip-on earrings that have little hedgehogs on them. They’re lavender, Demi’s favorite color as of last month. It changes a lot.

“Hey, check these out, Dem.”

She places a rainbow-colored platypus Beanie Boo up on its high shelf and wanders over to me so sluggishly it’s as if I’m asking her to go to bed. I shake my head at her dramatics; she can look at all the Beanie Boos she wants when I’m done showing her these.

“Cute, huh?” I show her, proud of my find.

“Mmhmm.”

“You want ‘em?” I got some cash on me for this mall trip, and Claire’s is the place to buy two, get three.

“Eh.” She lifts a shoulder. “They’re clip-on.”

“You don’t have pierced ears.”

“Yet.”

I make a face and slide the earrings on the rack. “Fine, be a butt.”

She gives little reaction to my teasing and goes back to the overpriced stuffed animals. She’s hilarious and apparently I’m out of touch. I swear if Candace had shown her the hedgehog earrings, she would’ve snapped them up.

I let her admire all the Beanie Boos while I wander aimlessly through the narrow spaces between each display. Even at Demi’s age, I wasn’t real excited about Claire’s. Never really had the chance to be. We were thrift store shoppers, and I’ve always been comfortable in jeans and t-shirts.

Yep, even my board was a hand-me-down. Belonged to one of my neighbors. He got a longboard and said bye-bye to his old one. I saw it sitting against the trash can, and being fresh off watchingBrink!I quickly knocked on their door and asked if I could have it. His mom was super nice, too, giving me one of their older helmets. I’ve since upgraded that piece of equipment since my head required it, and the wheels have been replaced a few times, but my trusty board, which I dubbed the Millennium Falcon, is still that same old one that was my neighbor’s garbage.

“Mad?” Demi says, taking me out of my thoughts. I blink, realizing I’m staring at a wall of hair clips.

“You find something you want?”

Demi shakes her head, the corners of her mouth turned slightly downward. “Nah. We can go.”

Hmm… weird. We’ve only been wandering Claire’s for five, ten minutes tops. I expected at least a half hour.

“All right. You hungry?” The food court has the best pretzels and cheese sauce.

“Can we go home?”

I jerk back. Seriously, we just got to the mall. This is her place, much like a boarding park is mine. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just tired.”

“You sick?” I put the back of my hand to her forehead, and she bats me away.

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