Page 80 of Built to Fall
And somewhere between the noise and the quiet, I think Grant and I are becoming friends, as odd as it feels.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
LINA
“Where the hell haveyoubeen?” Kara asks when I walk through the door of our apartment. Her arms are crossed in a way that makes the large gold bangles on her wrists clank together. It’s almost like she’s been waiting here for me. Like a mother after curfew.
“Jesus!” I gasp, whipping around and almost dropping my keys. I grip the entryway table so I don’t fall over, leaning my hip against it. “Don’t do that!”
After my eventful breakfast with Grant and his sisters, I knew it would be a challenge to get back into my apartment without any questions being raised. I was hoping that because Kara took Eden and Meredith into the city last night, they would all be hungover or lying in one of their bedrooms withSex and the Cityplaying.
I should have known I wouldn’t be that lucky.
Kara’s already dressed in a pair of baggy jeans and a black tank top. I’m sure she had a jacket coupled with it but took it off when she started cooking whatever smells so good.
Leave it to party princess Kara to be chipper as ever before ten a.m. on a Sunday.
“Where are you sneaking in from?” she prods again.
“It smells good in here! Are you making breakfast?” I ask, much too cheerfully, trying to divert the conversation.
“Don’t ignore the question.”
“Is that Lina?” Eden calls from the other room. It sounds like she sets something down on the counter before her footsteps pad through the kitchen and into the entryway. Her hair is seconds away from falling out of the claw clip it’s in as she pulls her pink plaid apron off.
She’s got flour smudged across one cheek, and the faint sound of Fleetwood Mac plays from the little Bluetooth speaker we keep propped in the corner between the knife block and the toaster.
“Finally.” Meredith follows close behind her. “Where were you?”
“We were getting there,” Kara replies.
“I stayed the night at Grant’s,” I confirm.
“You did?” Meredith’s brows furrow, accentuating the heterochromia of her eyes. It’s always made her stare more intense.
In the midst of the conversation, she bends over and begins rearranging the shoes on the shoe rack next to the door. She doesn’t do it for the same reasons Eden does it. She’s not a neat freak; she’s just not the best at being unoccupied.
She once reorganized our pantry at two in the morning. When I asked why, she said that it gave her something to do.
“Are those sweatpants new, Mer?” I ask, noticing the way they hang loosely around her waist, almost like they’re too big, but maybe that’s what she’s going for. I’ve never seen her wear them before.
“Yeah. My mom got them for me.”
I smile. “They’re cute.”
She’s also wearing a matching sweatshirt. I know it’s one of her favorites because she wears it often.
“Hey.” Kara snaps her fingers in front of me. “Stop trying to change the subject. You slept at Grant’s. Yes or no?”
“I did,” I say quietly, biting my lip while brushing through my knotted hair with my fingers.
“Finally!” Eden gasps.
“Did you actually sleep?” Kara asks.
I nod, but I might as well be taking a pickax to my pride, having to admit that I was wrong.
Eden readjusts the buttons of her cardigan. It’s red with pink lace hearts on it. Never something I would wear, but it’s cute in her fairy-princess, extremely girly way. “How do you feel?”
