Page 30 of Broken Ties (Rixon High 4)

Poppy

The summer before sixth grade…

“Your dad said I might find you out here.” Aaron loomed over me as I hung upside down on my horizontal bar. Dad had installed it a few weeks ago since he wanted me to have somewhere to practice that wasn’t my bedroom or the living room furniture.

“Hey,” I said, dropping down onto my feet.

“What’s up?”

I shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Come on, Pops. This is me.” He nudged my shoulder. “You can’t hide stuff from me, remember. That’s the rule.”

“We don’t have a rule.” I rolled my eyes as I walked over to the swing seat and sat down. Aaron joined me.

“Oh, we so do. Rule one: Poppy shall not keep secrets of any kind from Aaron the Greatest.”

I could barely contain my laughter. “Aaron the Greatest? Wow, that’s… wow.”

“What?” His brows knitted as he tried to maintain a serious expression. “I thought it had a nice ring to it.”

“You’re so freaking weird.”

“Rule number two: Poppy shall only ever admire Aaron the Greatest no matter how weird and wonderful his ideas are.” He grinned and I grinned back.

He was such a dork, but he always knew how to make me laugh. It was like his superpower or something.

“I know what you’re doing.”

“And what’s that?”

“You’re trying to distract me.” I curled my hands over the edge of the seat.

“Is it working?”

A small smile tugged at my mouth. “Maybe.”

“Yes.” He fist pumped the air. “Now, want to tell me what’s up?”

“It’s Lily…”

“She having a bad time again?”

“Yeah. She went to a sleepover… it was bad, Aaron. Really bad.”

Chelsea Farnham and her bunch of mean girl friends had teased my sister and then cut her hair. I still couldn’t believe it. Mom had completely freaked out while Dad had gone into a quiet rage. I didn’t like it when he got like that. It scared me. Not because I thought he would ever hurt me or Lily or Mom. But because I worried for whoever had wronged us.

My dad was kind of badass, and everyone in Rixon knew it.

“I’m sorry,” Aaron said.

“Yeah, me too.”

Mom and Lily had been locked in her room all day, showing no signs of coming out. And I got it, I did. But Lily was my sister too. I wanted to help. To comfort her.

Lily wasn’t like me. She was shy and quiet and found it difficult being around a lot of people. Mom was constantly fussing over her. She didn’t fuss over me. In fact, when Lily was going through a rough patch, she barely even had time for me.

“Hey, what’s with the frown?” Aaron slung his arm around me and I laid my head on his shoulder.

---