Finders Reapers by Anna Staniszewski

Author:Anna Staniszewski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc
Published: 2016-01-12T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Marcus was about to get ready for bed when Ann-Marie poked her head into his room.

“Dad said to remind you that it’s your turn to do the trash this week,” she said.

“Okay, thanks,” he mumbled, barely looking up as he finished carefully arranging the newly painted shuttle parts by the window to dry.

He expected his sister to duck back out, but instead she said, “What happened to your models? Didn’t you have a bunch more of them the other day?”

“Yeah, so?” He straightened up, wiping his hands on his jeans.

“I know you didn’t suddenly smarten up and throw them away. Where are they?”

“I…I sold a few of them,” he admitted before he pushed past her into the hallway. He knew from experience that it was better to tell his sister the truth rather than have her drag it out of him.

“You sold them?” Ann-Marie repeated, following him to the bathroom. She was acting as if he’d told her he’d eaten them with a side of ketchup.

“You were the one talking about throwing them away!”

“I was joking,” she said. “I don’t know why, but Grandpa loved those dumb things. Remember when he brought you that robot one, and Dad freaked out because he thought you were playing with action figures again?”

Marcus had to chuckle at the memory, even though it wasn’t all that funny. “Grandpa swore to me that if Dad kept giving me a hard time, he’d start buying me dolls to mess with him.”

Ann-Marie smiled, but he could see her gaze was far away. He and his sister didn’t agree on much, but he knew they both missed Grandpa like crazy.

Then her smile disappeared. “If he loved those things so much, how could you get rid of them?”

“Because I need the money,” Marcus snapped, hating the accusing tone in her voice. He turned away from her and glopped some toothpaste onto his toothbrush.

“Let me guess, money to impress Lena?” His sister shook her head. “God, Marcus, you’re such a people pleaser. You’re going to hockey games even though you hate them and bending over backward to make that girlfriend like you. Why can’t you let things happen the way they’re supposed to?”

Marcus spit into the sink. “Oh, so it’s better to be like you? Standing by and hoping something will happen?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Come on, it’s obvious you like Peter Chung, but you won’t do anything about it. If I wasn’t trying to help you, then—”

Ann-Marie’s eyes widened in horror. “What are you talking about? What have you been doing?”

“Nothing!” It was technically the truth. At this rate, it didn’t seem like fixing up Ann-Marie was ever going to happen.

But his sister clearly didn’t believe him. “I don’t want you anywhere near Peter again,” she said through her teeth. Her jaw was set so tightly, it looked like it might crack. “If I see you even breathing in his direction, I’ll tell everyone at your school that you still sleep with your baby blanket. Got it?”

“I don’t—” he started to object, but Ann-Marie was already storming down the hall.

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