Never Nicola (Detroit ABCs) by Jamie Bennett

Author:Jamie Bennett [Bennett, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

It was a birthday party, so I had to be nice. That was her message. “You have to,” my sister Addie repeated. “Even though I know that since she’s a Gemini, she’s in square to you as a—”

“Are you talking about astrology again? I’m not interested in that star stuff,” I said, and then watched her cheeks get red and felt bad about it. I wasn’t interested but I shouldn’t have said that to Addie, who didn’t have a mean bone in her body.

“I’m sorry,” I told her. “Go ahead.”

“I’m just saying that I know you get upset around Mom,” she answered, speaking quietly. “But since you came to her party, you have to try to be nice. Let’s all try it,” she suggested to Sophie, Grace, and Juliet, but only JuJu seemed to concur.

“We all should,” she said, nodding. “We already started out ahead because Nicola’s here. If you hadn’t shown up, then we would have heard about it for the next six months,” JuJu mentioned to me, and patted my head like I was the younger one. “So thanks, Nic. We appreciate it.”

“Yeah, thanks, Nic,” Brenna said in a sing-song voice as she walked out to join us on the sunporch. She carried a huge slab of cake with her, because the Brat had the biggest sweet tooth of everyone, and I knew this was piece number two because we’d all had our share after singing “happy birthday” to our mother. Mom had blown out the candles and then she’d opened the presents we’d brought as my dad sliced up the giant cake. I’d given her flowers, Sophie had presented a gift card, Addie had given her a book about astrology, Brenna had provided a bottle of wine, and JuJu had gifted her with a purse that looked as if it might have cost as much as the roof that Eddie needed. Grace had forgotten to get any present at all even though she lived in this house and had watched my dad hang a “Happy Birthday!” banner over the door.

“What did Nicola do for you now?” Brenna asked Juliet, nudging with her hip so that they could share one of the chairs. The cake almost fell off her plate as she wedged herself in. “Did she cut out her kidney with a dull spoon because you needed an extra?”

“Brenna, don’t be a brat,” Sophie told her, and Addie tried to intervene and calm everyone down. I waited until they were done talking over each other.

“I’m not going to start an argument with Mom right now,” I announced. “Ok? I promise. I came over here because I wanted to see everyone and wish her a happy birthday, that’s all.” The free lunch hadn’t been bad, either, and I’d also taken an extra piece of cake. It was for Jude.

JuJu stared at me. “And?” she prompted. “Is there a catch?”

“No, no catch. I’m going to be nice like Addie asked me to. Is that so hard to believe?”

Apparently it was, because now everyone stared at me like my bruises were showing.

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