Page 97 of No Rhyme or Roughing
With my food in hand, I found a seat at the back.
Moments later, Stas dropped into the chair across from me, slamming her drink onto the table. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Me?”
Anger wasn’t my usual response. I was more of alet it fester and then spiral into depressiontype.
“You walk up to me like you haven’t spent the last fourteen years pretending I don’t exist. Then, you reveal that the job I was actually considering is available to me because you’re sleeping with my potential boss. And don’t even get mad at me for coming in here. I see your eyes humping that chai.”
Her hands closed protectively around her cup. “They make fantastic chais.”
We stared at each other for a long moment before laughter broke the tension between us.
Stas shook her head. “Humping the chai, really?”
I shrugged. “You don’t know me, Stas. I say inappropriate things when my anxiety is high. Right now, I want to fuck these donuts.”
Her jaw dropped, but she quickly recovered. “Can we start over?”
I sighed. “Fine. Hi, I’m Sydney Valentine. I’m here to try to get a job because my life is good for once, and I can’t handle it.”
Stas took my hand. “Nice to meet you, Sydney. I’m Stasia Valentine. Coincidence on the last name, right? Anyway, I was secretly excited about you working here and may have changed outfits ten times this morning because I was nervous about seeing you.”
I released her, took a giant bite of donut to distract myself from her admission, and nearly choked. She didn’t move.
When I could finally speak again, I said, “Thanks for the help there.”
“If you can cough, you can breathe.” One shoulder rose, and in that moment, she looked so much like Mom. Unlike me and Kristen, Stas had always been the spitting image of her.
“Man,” I said. “Even the siblings who hate you have jokes.”
Her face sobered. “Why would you think I hate you?”
“Hmm, let me see. Fourteen years have gone by sinceyou’ve contacted me. What was a ten-year-old supposed to think?”
Her eyes finally left mine and color rose in her cheeks. “We doing this now?”
“Hope you brought your boxing gloves because I hate myself enough to cause many scenes.”
Stas sighed, and it seemed to go on forever. “I’m sorry.”
I hadn’t expected that. “For what, exactly?”
“Everything. What happened between Mom and Dad.”
“That wasn’t…” I shook my head. “Why would you be sorry about that?”
“The woman Dad… She was my hockey coach. I brought her into our lives.”
“No, it wasn’t your fault. It was mine.”
“You’re going to fight me on this too?” There was a challenge in her gaze. “I’d caused enough damage to the family. When I left for college, I just… stayed away. It was better for everyone.”
I stood, scooting my chair back. It made a loud scratching noise. “You don’t get to take this from me too. I’m the one who told Mom about the affair. The family falling apart was my fault. Don’t steal my blame.” I’d built my entire life around it. Around the fact that my family hated me, how I destroyed everything and would continue to do so.
“This isn’t about Teddy’s destroyer of worlds thing, is it?” Her brow furrowed. “Syd, you were five when that started, and it was about video games.”
“Then, it became real life. I mess everything up.” Just ask the wonderful man I left naked this morning.
