Artfully Annoying by Annika Champenois

Author:Annika Champenois [Champenois, Annika]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Annika Champenois

When I stepped outside after my last class of the day, it was quickly growing cold, and I was grateful for the scarf and coat I had thought to bring that morning. I walked home under a thick, gray cloud-cover. Close to home, my phone started beeping.

I picked up and let out a misty breath. “Hi, Mom. Miss me already?”

“Yes.” She feigned a hassled tone. “I’m turning the guest bedroom into your new room, and I’ve bought a plane ticket for you to come home and stay. Please, please come home. Maybe you’ll have a calming influence on your little sister.”

I snorted and brought a hand to my nose to warm it. “Fairlee? Not a chance. You forget that after she and I have been together a few days, we meld into one personality and get into mischief together.”

“Oh, yes.” Mom sighed. “Sometimes you’re the ringleader. Fine, I’ll see if I can get a refund for the ticket.” I snorted again. “But anyway, how was your Monday?”

“It’s been good.”

Mom waited a moment, then asked, “How was your Monday meeting with that boy?”

I stopped dead in the middle of the street. “Excuse me?”

“Well, did you have a good time? What did you do?” I know it sounds impossible, but I could hear Mom’s smile grow with each question. “What’s his name?”

“Mom.” My footsteps started up in an angry stomp. I passed my house and kept going, unaware that I had started my characteristic upset walk around the block. My voice rose. “Croft spends far too much time with me as it is. I’m going to see him tomorrow, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and I’m sure he’ll come up with something to drag me to either Friday or Saturday. I need a break from him. Can we please talk about something else?”

Mom was silent for so long that I feared the answer was no.

Finally, she asked, “Have you signed up for next semester’s classes?”

She sounded happy. I decided not to ponder why. “Yes. I’ll have four big classes for my major. It looks intimidating, but I’m excited.”

We discussed my upcoming statistics classes and the art course I had chosen. I was on my third round of the block when we hung up.

By then, I was freezing. I put my hands in my pockets to warm them but felt sad as I approached my house with all the lights turned off inside.

There was no Willie outdoors, and I couldn’t blame him for that, but I wished I had someone to talk to instead of an empty building to sit in for the next two hours. I wished I had a Keaton or a Jesse to spend time with without fear of them leaving me. They weren’t as funny as Croft . . .

I blinked and pushed the thought away. The point was, things had been simpler with those first two boyfriends, back before I feared I was destined to have another girl chosen over me again and again.

The lighting out here was strange.

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