Page 7 of Fake It Till You Break It
“Can you hold on for a minute?” I chewed on my thumbnail and studied the menu. What did I want? Something sweet, but I needed some major caffeine. There was a world-history report due in a few days and I barely had a topic and I was exhausted today. It was going to be a long night.
Mia undid her seat belt and leaned over me. Her left hand braced against my arm as she balanced herself over my lap. Her dark hair practically touched my crotch. Our faces were barely inches apart. I could count her lashes if I wanted to. I should shove her away like she did to me, but I didn’t move. “Yeah, could I have a grande caffe mocha with an extra shot of espresso? And two blueberry scones? Thanks.”
“…’kay. Come to the…”
The hell? My brow rose as I pulled up to the next window. “What was that?”
Mia widened her eyes and tried to look innocent. And failed miserably. “Come on, you were taking forever like you always do. And you know you were going to order that anyway.”
I wanted to argue with her, but her order did sound like it would hit the spot. Right down to the two blueberry scones. And as much as I hated to admit it, she was right. Didn’t mean she needed to know that. She was already annoying enough as it is. I don’t know how she knew what I wanted before I did, though.
With a sigh, I absentmindedly rubbed my arm where she had held it before. For some reason, it was all hot and felt weird. In fact, the whole car was really hot all of a sudden. I cranked up the air conditioner to full blast and adjusted both sides to point at me.
Mia continued chatting like she didn’t feel the temp change. “I don’t know why you always order two of everything. You never finish it.”
My mouth twisted into a wry half grin. “Maybe I like wasting money.”
“You’re so weird.”
Snorting to myself, I just shook my head. Funny how she noticed that I always ordered two of everything, but not the reason why. ’Cause the truth was if I didn’t, I’d never get to eat anything at all. Fifteen years’ experience taught me how to survive with Mia around.
Within ten minutes, I was proved right as half of a blueberry scone was gone. Mia kept bobbing her head to the song on the radio as she picked at the scone with her left hand. I had no idea how she ate without thinking all the time.
There were a couple of crumbs around the left corner of her mouth. I would have told her, but I didn’t want her to realize she was eating the scone. Or worse, that I always bought an extra one for her. She might think I actually cared about her or something. Then I’d never hear the end of it.
Instead, I took a deep sip of my drink. Just the right amount of bitterness to cut through the sweet frothy drink. Kind of like Mia herself.
Sometimes she wasn’t so bad. If it weren’t for our moms shoving us together all the time, we might even be friends.
Maybe.
JAKE
MY FINGERS TAPPEDan erratic rhythm against my laptop cover, and I let out a heavy sigh. “For the last time, Greg, I’m not going. And if you ask me again, I’m going to block your number from my phone.”
He snorted on the other end of the line. “Okay, okay, don’t get your panties in a bunch. I was just making sure because if you change your mind, there won’t be any openings left. You know, maybe you need to think about it overnight and get back to me—”
“That’s it, I’m hanging up on you.”
“Come on, Jake, just—”
Click.
I shut off my phone in case he called again. If he weren’t Rose’s brother, I would have decked him through the phone. Although I’m sure she wouldn’t have minded.
Rose and I became friends in elementary school. We wereboth in the same honors class and usually partnered together. I guess it had been only a matter of time until I’d meet Greg, since they were twins after all.
But he wasn’t all bad. As crazy as he was, Greg was like a brother to me, too. An annoying, irritating little brother whom no one would buy no matter how much you tried to sell him for. No wonder he got along awesome with Mia.
Luckily, nobody knew that the coordinator had already contacted me. Apparently, she stumbled on our YouTube channel a few weeks ago. She seemed super disappointed that the Adler Brothers no longer existed, but she was still keen to have me perform. I haven’t given her an answer yet. I should. But then I should do a lot of things.
Like now.
My mouse hovered over the delete button on our YouTube account to get rid of it once and for all. I’d been meaning to do it for ages, but my finger never seemed to want to pull the trigger. Or rather click the button. Today was no exception. I half hoped that if I avoided the site long enough, the account would delete itself.
This was stupid.Iwas stupid. Keeping a couple of videos we made when we were kids wasn’t going to bring Finn back. Not that I even wanted him to come back. It wasn’t going to change anything.
Just then Mom poked her head in. “Could I come in?”
