Dean cocks a brow at Micha as he opens the fridge. “Yeah, like that sounded convincing…” He trails off as he glances inside the fridge. “Where the hell is all the food?”
I zip up my jacket. “I haven’t had time to go grocery shopping, but I’ll try to go tonight.” And use part of the money my mom gave me earlier this morning.
“Or you could always go,” Micha says to Dean in a cold tone.
Shaking his head, Dean closes the fridge and turns to face Micha, crossing his arms. “What’s your problem lately? First you get pissed off because I told Ella I didn’t want her hanging around while we practice. And now you’re getting pissy because why? I don’t even know this time.”
“I’m pissy because you treat her like shit.” Micha nods his head in my direction. “And you act like she’s your maid, which she’s not.”
Dean glares at Micha. “How I treat my sister is none of your damn business.”
“She’s my best friend, so yeah it is,” Micha snaps, reaching for my hand.
“Guys,” I start, but they talk over me.
“Best friend, huh?” Dean gives Micha this insinuating look that I don’t quite understand.
Apparently Micha does, though, and he doesn’t like the meaning, because he immediately frowns.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Looking pretty damn smug, Dean turns around and walks out of the kitchen.
I glance at Micha. “What the hell was that about?”
Gritting his teeth, he shrugs. “I have no idea.”
I elevate my brows. “Now who’s the liar?”
Micha sighs heavily. “I’m not lying. I just… Don’t really want to get into it right now.” He seems twitchy which is so unlike him.
“Okay.” I give a short pause as I replay what Dean said that seemed to upset Micha. “Are you not really my best friend? Do you just tell me that and then when you’re with your guy friends, you joke about how I believe you.” I know I sound childish, but it’s the only reason I can think of as to why Micha reacted the way he did when Dean seemed to question if I was really Micha’s best friend.
Micha gapes at me then suddenly busts up laughing.
Confusion dances inside me. “What the hell’s so funny?”
He shakes his head, tears of laughter shining in his eye. “You thinking that we’re not really best friends.”
I’m still beyond confused and kind of getting annoyed. “And that’s funny why?”
“Because it could never, ever be true.” He dramatically presses his free hand to his chest. “You’re more than my best friend, Ella May. You’re my other half.”
Again, a stupid warmth starts to spread through my body, but I quickly squash it. “You’re so damn cheesy sometimes. Seriously, if girls heard the crap you said to me, you’d have even more girlfriends than you already do.”
He points a finger at me as he pulls me toward the back door. “Hey, I’ve never had a girlfriend.”
I roll my eyes as he yanks open the door and snowflakes trickling in from outside. “You say that all the time, yet every single weekend, you hook up with someone.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t make them my girlfriend.” As we step outside, he draws his hood over his head while I reach into my pocket to dig out the fingerless gloves I always keep in there.
I slip them on then zip up my jacket, debating whether or not to go back inside and grab a beanie.
“One day that’s going to change.” I lift my hand in front of my face as snowflakes land all over me.
He reaches into his pocket and like a freakin’ mind reader, pulls out a beanie. “Nah, that’ll never happen.” He tugs the beanie over my head and fixes my hair so it’s not in my face. “Well, until you finally agree to be my girlfriend.”
He’s said this to me many times over the last year or so, mostly because he knows it drives me crazy.
I groan, my head bobbing back. “Oh my god, don’t start with that crap again or I’m going to have to kick your ass.”
His eyes glint mischievously. “Like you just kicked my ass on your bed earlier?”
I narrow my eyes at him. “That was an unfair match.”
“Keep telling yourself that, but deep down, you know I won fairly. And eventually, you’re going to have to pay up.” He pulls me along with him as he starts down the snow-covered driveway.
Around the neighborhood, people are working to shovel their driveways, but with how heavy the snow is coming down, it’s probably a lost cause.
I glance at Micha’s house. Just on the other side of the fence that divides our properties is the driveway to his house and it’s nearly buried in snow.
“I thought you said you were shoveling the driveway this morning?” I look back to Micha just in time to see him tense.
But in a flutter of a snowflake, he relaxes back to his casual self. “Yeah, but it’s snowing so hard it didn’t do much good.”
I have a feeling he might be lying to me, but about what? I could ask, but we reach Ethan’s truck then.
Micha pulls open the driver’s side door and gestures for me to get in.
I shake my head. “No way. I’m not sitting bitch again.”
“Jesus, do we have to do this every time,” Ethan grumbles from the driver’s seat. “Just get in the truck. I’ve got shit to do this morning.”
He has a knitted cap pulled over his dark hair, a hooded jacket on, and a cigarette is resting between his fingers, the smoke lacing out through the cracked open window.
“You say that every morning,” I remark. When he scowls at me, I smile sweetly at him. “What? You do. And yet, you never actually have anything to do.”
“I’m driving your asses around, aren’t I?” he quips, ashing his cigarette out the window. “And besides, this morning I do have stuff to do.”
“What?” Micha and I ask simultaneously.
He shrugs, cranking up the heat. “I’m meeting some people up at the cabin.”
“Who?” Micha asks, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
“Renee, Jane, Jay, and Steve,” he says. “There might be more, but who the hell knows.”
I wrap my arms around myself as the cold starts to seep through my clothes. “So everyone’s ditching today?”
“Yeah,” Ethan replies. “It should be a snow day anyway.”
“Every day should be a snow day here,” I point out then step back and motion for Micha to get into the truck.
He shakes his head. “As much as I love giving you your way, Ethan will have a shit fit if I try to cuddle up with him while he’s driving.”
“Just because I’m the chick in our group, doesn’t mean I always have to sit bitch,” I reply, refusing to budge.
“It’s not because you’re a chick,” Micha insist. “It’s because you’re the smallest.”
“That used to not be true,” I grumble, my breath fogging out in front of my face.
“But it is, so…” He gestures at the truck.
“Well, you’re the tallest, so…” I mimic his gesture.
“Would you to knock it off?” Ethan gripes. When neither of us budges, he adds, “Micha, just put her in the truck so we can go. I’m supposed to pick up Renee in like ten minutes.”
“Are you two like dating now?” I snicker, knowing my remark is going to piss him off.
He glares at me. “Ha, ha, you’re a fucking riot.” He gives Micha a pressing look with his brows raised.
I know them well enough to understand they’re having a silent conversation about me, probably one that has to do with getting me in the truck. I start to move back when Micha’s arms loop around my waist and he lifts me up.
“Hey! Not fair.” I whine as he hoists me onto the seat.
Then he pushes me toward the middle, hurries and climbs inside, and shuts the door.
I sulk as I get situated in the seat, sitting closer to Micha than Ethan.
“Payback’s going to be a bitch,” I threaten to Micha but he only smiles.
Then he grabs Ethan’s pack of cigarettes from off the dash, lights up, and cracks the window. Cold air and smoke fills the cab as Ethan backs down the driveway and onto the icy road.
“We need to stop and get breakfast from somewhere,” Micha tells Ethan after he takes a drag off his cigarette.
“We will after we pick up Renee,” he mumbles, turning down a side street and heading in the direction of Renee’s house.
As the snow on the road gets deeper, he shifts his truck into four-wheel drive.
“Why are we even picking her up?” Micha drapes his arm across the back of the seat behind me. “I thought she annoyed the shit out of you.”
“Not always,” he responds vaguely.
Micha and I trade an amused look then Micha says, “I know Ella just asked this, but now I’m wondering: are you guys dating?”
Ethan blasts him with a dirty look. “You know I don’t do relationships. And even if I did, it sure as hell wouldn’t be with Renee.”
“You seem awfully testy about this.” I lean into Micha while smirking at Ethan.
His eyes narrow. “I’m not dating her so shut the hell up.”
“It sure seems like you might be,” Micha says, sliding his arm from the back of the seat and putting it around my shoulders.
Ethan’s glare deepens, but then a conniving smile tugs at his lips. “Maybe I should be asking you two the same thing. I mean, look at you right now, all cuddled up like a couple.”
Instead of getting annoyed, Micha just grins and pulls me closer. “If we were a couple, we’d make a cute one.” He presses his cheek against mine.
Ethan pulls a disgusted face and flicks his cigarette out the window.
Shaking my head, I push Micha back. “You’re such a weirdo.”
“I second that,” Ethan says as he parks beside the curb in front of Renee’s single story home. Then he shoves open the door and hops out, muttering, “I’ll be right back.”
Micha and I watch as he hikes through the snow to the front door.
“Holy crap, did he seriously just go up to the door?” I ask, glancing at Micha.
Micha nods, his eyes glinting with amusement. “I think they might be hooking up.”
I crinkle my nose. “Ew.”
“Which one are you saying ew to?” he questions with amusement. “Ethan hooking up with Renee or Renee hooking up with Ethan? Or is it just hooking up in general?”
I lift a shoulder, feeling a bit uncomfortable at the mention of hooking up. I mean, it’s not like I’m a prude or anything. But the idea of getting that close to anyone… I don’t know, it just makes me feel squirrely inside.
“Maybe all three,” I say with another shrug. “But who am I to judge. It’s not like I’ve ever done anything with anyone.”
“That’s not true.”
“Um, yeah it is.”
“No, it’s not.” He stares at me expectantly, as if waiting for me to figure out what he’s referring to. When I don’t, he adds. “About a year ago. You and I and the swing set.”
“That really doesn’t count, though.”
He either pretends to be hurt or is hurt—I’m not quite sure. “How the hell does that not count? We kissed for like twenty seconds.”
“Because it was a challenge.” I start to grow even more squirmy. “We didn’t really want to kiss.”
“Says who?”
“Says me and you.”
“That’s not true.” He places his hand against his chest. “I wanted to kiss you.”
I roll my eyes. “Only because you were bored.”
“No, I wasn’t. I…” He trails off as Ethan returns to the truck and opens the door.
When he sticks his head in, he looks from me to Micha then at Renee as she opens the passenger door. “Someone’s going to have to lap it up.”
“Not it!” I call out before anyone else can.
Renee shrugs, then moves to climb in. “That’s cool with me. I don’t mind sitting on Micha’s lap.”
For the briefest second, a flash of irritation flickers in my chest. But I ignore it, unsure where it came from.
“Actually, Ella can just sit on mine,” Micha says, his fingers wrapping around my waist.
Before I can even react, he lifts me up, slides over, and plants me down into his lap.
“What the heck is up with you just moving me around whenever you want? I’m not a damn doll,” I say as I wiggle around to get situated.
“If you were, though, you’d be a really pretty one,” he whispers in my ear.
My head whips to the side and I glare at him. “Watch it with the p word, dude.”
He lifts up a hand in surrender while resting his other hand on my hip. “My bad. I forgot how much you hate it.”
I mentally roll my eyes. He so did not. In fact, I think he secretly calls me pretty because it irks me.
“You two are so cute it’s disgusting,” Renee mumbles as she hops in beside Micha and shuts the door.
People say stuff like this to Micha and me all the time, like we’re this cute couple. It’s annoying and sometimes I quip back with a snarky comeback, but right now I’m super tired. And hungry apparently, something my stomach announces as it grumbles loudly.
Micha chuckles, circling his arms around my waist. “Hungry, Ella May?”
I nod, resting back against him. “Yeah, kind of.”
He pulls me even closer then tells Ethan, “Stop at the diner so we can feed the gremlin that apparently has taken up residency in Ella’s stomach.” He brushes his fingers along the bottom of my belly as he says it.
He’s done stuff like this before, but lately, these annoying tingles spread across my skin whenever he does, and I have to press my lips together to keep from shivering.
Ethan already has another lit cigarette between his fingers and ash falls to his lap as he gives Micha a salute. Then he shoves the shifter into drive and steers forward, the truck sliding in the snow.
It takes us about ten minutes to get to the diner when normally it takes about five. The snow is really piling up, though, enough that a concern starts to rise.
“We might want to go someplace else besides the cabin,” Renee says as she stares at the snow flurrying from the sky. “We might not even be able to make it up there.”
“And if we do, we might get stuck there,” I add.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind getting stuck out in the mountains for a while, but only so I won’t have to deal with the drama I know is going to be waiting for me when I get home today.
“Yeah, so? That doesn’t sound bad to me.” Ethan parks in a spot at the diner and begins examining the menu in front of us.
The place is straight out of the seventies; the waiters and waitresses skate around outside on roller skates and take orders at vehicles. Well, at least that’s how it works in the summer. In the winter, though, they have to hike through the two feet of snow to do it.
“Of course it doesn’t,” I reply to Ethan, not bothering to look at the menu. I have a total of two bucks in my pocket, which means I can afford a coffee and a hash brown. “I swear one day you’re going to just take off and go live in the mountains.”
Ethan bobs his head in agreement, his attention straying to the waitress as she approaches his truck.
My gaze wanders to the help wanted sign on the door of the diner. “Maybe I should work here,” I say to no one in particular.
Renee snorts a laugh. “Yeah, right.”
My gaze slides to her. “What’s so funny about that?”
She shrugs, tucking a strand of her short, dark hair behind her ear. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you have zero people skills, and you need that to work at a place where most of your salary relies on tips.”
Her words, while irritating, are probably true.
“I don’t know about that,” Micha disagrees, resting his hand on my leg.
Renee glances at him questioningly. “You think Ella has people skills?”
“No.” He gr
ins when I throw a playful dirty look at him. “But she could get a lot of tips if she wanted to.”
Renee’s brows dip. “How?”
Micha’s eyes sparkle as he shrugs. “She’s hot, and a lot of times guys will tip a waitress just because she’s hot.”
Now I give him a real dirty look. “I’m not hot.”
He rolls his eyes. “All right, you’re not hot.”
My jaw ticks and I start to squirm, annoyed and confused. I know he’s called me pretty a ton of times, but only because he knows it bugs me. But he’s never called me hot. No guy has.
Renee’s gaze shifts from me to Micha. Then she raises her brows and focuses on the menu, muttering, “You two just need to screw and get it over with it.”
My fingers curl into fists and I may have hit her if Micha hadn’t brushed his fingers along my thigh.
“Easy, firecracker,” he whispers with a hint of laughter in his tone. “Lets try not to get into a fight today, at least until after we eat.”
“Fine.” I stick out my lip out, which causes him to chuckle. “But if she says anything like that again, I’m not going to let it slide.” I talk loud enough for her to hear me and she doesn’t reply, pretending to be focused on the menu.
But Renee knows I can kick her ass if I want to. In fact, it wouldn’t be the first time I have.
Seconds later, the waitress arrives at our truck. Ethan rolls the window down, letting cold air and snow into the cab.
“What can I get you?” she asks, chattering a bit.
Her lips are also kind of blue. Poor girl. I feel bad she has to be outside in these conditions.
Maybe I don’t want to work here. Then again, I can’t afford to be picky.
Ethan gives her a flirty grin and starts prattling off his order. I go next, ordering a coffee and a hash brown, and then Micha goes, ordering enough food to feed both him and Ethan. Renee only gets a coffee. Then she lights up a cigarette, rolls down the window, and starts chatting with the guys in the truck parked beside us.
I nearly fall asleep as I wait for our food to arrive, listening to Micha and Ethan talk about the car Micha wants to buy.
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