Page 45 of The Rebel
Mom immediately flew back for the funeral, but Paris had made the semifinal of his tournament, so Dad and I stayed on with Paris. When we returned home three weeks later, we allvisited Dani but I can’t honestly remember whether I saw Jade and Oliver.
Seeing the many photos of Mr. Sinclair on the mantelpiece made me wonder what it had been like—what it was like—for Jade and Oliver not to have their Dad around anymore. I remembered freaking out at the possibility of Mom having cancer, so I couldn’t imagine their reality.
Hearing a light knock on the door, my heart rate suddenly accelerated as I anticipated it might be Jade, (because it was too early for Dani to be back.) He’d probably want more details on why I’d driven Mom’s car to school and tell Dani about it. My voice was feeble, “Yes?”
But it was Oliver who entered, and though I was relieved, I was also strangely disappointed. “Hey, can I see your drawings?”
“Have you finished your homework already?” I asked, sounding exactly like his older brother.
“Yeah,” Ollie said. “I’d still be locked in my bedroom if I hadn’t.”
I gasped. “Jade locks you in your room?”
Ollie nearly choked on his laughter. “Nah, just kidding. He wouldn’t do that.” He loitered near the end of my bed.
“Here,” I said, clearing my laptop and assortment of books out of the way for him to sit. I repositioned myself into sitting cross-legged and opened the art pad I’d used in Florida.
The pictures were pencil sketches of Paris in all different action shots—serving, forehand, backhand, volley, on the stretch, ready to return. My plan was to add more depth to them using a tinting method with colored pencils and add them to my portfolio. With detention all week, I didn’t have time to draw new pictures.
“Cool,” Ollie said as I flicked through the pages. “They’re awesome.”
I scrunched up my nose, only seeing the flaws in every picture—the wrong angle of the tennis racket, the unnatural flow of Paris’s hair and headband, the poor definition of his biceps. Paris would be critical that I hadn’t captured the true bulge of his muscles!
“Nah, they need a lot of work,” I said.
“Are you going to come snow tubing with us?” Ollie asked.
“Me?”
“Yeah. Jade promised.”
“He promised he’d take you,” I said. “Not me.”
“Aw, you should come too.”
Ha! I loved Ollie’s innocence—as if Jade would want me hanging around with him and his friends. Though, I liked the way Jade was willing to include Ollie in things he did. Unlike my own brother at present.
“Anyway, I didn’t think Jade liked sledding or tubing,” I said.
“Yeah, he does,” Ollie said.
“Well, he wasn’t sledding at Oak Brook the other night.”
Ollie giggled. “Yeah, he was too busy talking to his girlfriend in England.”
Okay, so when Gabby told me she was dating Scott, I’d been devastated, but weirdly, this made my heart sink like a proverbial stone. My lungs literally deflated, devoid of any air, like I could no longer breathe. I couldn’t understand it, Ollie’s words hitting my heart as if struck by a dagger. Which was insane.
Luckily my phone pinged, distracting the insanity in my chest. Kelsey had texted in the group chat:What time, Gabs?
A text bubble teased on the screen, an eternity in the waiting, but then suddenly it disappeared, as did Kelsey’s message. The screen went blank, pointing to only one possible explanation—something was going on with Gabby and my friends which didn’t include me.
If I thought there was a dagger in my chest a moment ago, there was now a fully embedded machete. It was mad and crazy and ludicrous. Were all of my friends somehow against me?
There was complete impulsiveness in what I said next, “Hey Ollie, why don’t we go sledding now?”
Ollie’s eyes widened in both horror and excitement. “Where?”
“I could take us to Oak Brook,” I said, “we’d be back before Dani gets home.”
