The Fill-In Boyfriend
Page 16

The first thing I noticed when Claire pulled up to my house was my brother’s beat-up car sitting at the curb.
“Drew’s here?” Claire said. “I should probably stay.”
“Funny,” I said. “And gross.”
“Come on, you know he’s cute. I can’t help it.” She turned off her car and got out with me. I rolled my eyes but laughed.
Inside, Drew had a plate piled with food like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. Maybe the last good meal he had was here, three weeks ago. He had some new growth on his face that made him seem so much older than me when really we were only three years apart.
“You’re home,” I said unnecessarily.
His mouth was full of food but he smiled anyway. He even added a “Hey, sis.”
“Hi.”
“Hi,” Claire said as well.
He swallowed. “How’s it going? And yes, I’m home for the weekend.”
“It’s only Thursday.”
“I don’t have classes on Fridays.”
I wondered if his being here would change my plans for Saturday. Would Mom want us to have some sort of family dinner that night?
Claire sat down at the table in the chair across from him. “How is UCLA? I’ll be there in a hundred days with Gia.”
He gave her an amused look. “And how many hours?”
Her cheeks went pink. “I don’t have that figured out.”
“Well, you’ll love it. It’s great.” Drew took another bite of food then he turned toward me. “I ran into Bradley the other day.”
“Oh?” My face went numb. I didn’t want to talk about Bradley right now, in front of Claire. I was worried something might come out. When I told Claire the truth, it needed to be just her and me. My brother wouldn’t help.
“He said you guys are fighting?”
“That’s what he said? That we’re fighting?” I wasn’t sure what that meant. That he thought we might get back together? He hadn’t called me back since I left the message the day before.
Drew’s brows went down. “I think that’s what he said. Are you not fighting?”
“He broke up with me.”
“He cheated on her,” Claire added.
Crap. “Well, I mean, that’s what it seemed like,” I said to smooth things over in case my brother relayed this back to Bradley.
“What do you mean that’s what it seemed like?” Claire said, indignant on my behalf. “There was that other girl there. He basically admitted to it.”
“Right. But we didn’t see anything and I haven’t really let him explain.”
“You’re going to forgive him?” Claire asked, standing to face me.
“No.” It was nearly impossible to convey two different things at the same time. I couldn’t let my brother go back to Bradley with the cheating story, but I didn’t want Claire to think I was getting back together with him after he “cheated” on me.
“Huh,” my brother said. “I hadn’t heard that side of the story.”
“What did you hear?” I asked, unable to contain my curiosity about how Bradley was telling the story.
“He just said you had a fight and he’d been trying to call you. He asked how you were. I said I hadn’t talked to you in a while but that according to Twitter you were . . . um . . . how did you put it? ‘Chillin’ at home’?”
“You really said that to him?”
“That’s what you wrote on Twitter. You’re okay with the world reading it but not Bradley?”
“The world doesn’t read my Twitter,” I mumbled.
“Do you want me to find out if he’s cheating on you? I have connections.” He said this in a mob-boss kind of voice.
“No,” I said, but Claire said, “Yes” right over me.
He looked between the two of us.
“No,” I said again. “Please, I don’t need my brother policing my relationship.”
He leaned into the table. “Gia, I hope you’re not trying to pretend everything is fine if a guy cheated on you. You should be pissed about that.”
“I am. I mean, I would be if he really had.”
Claire’s mouth dropped open at this point. Drew shook his head. “Claire, in case you haven’t learned this about my sister, everything in her world is perfect. Even if it really isn’t.”
I had almost forgotten how Drew was. He liked to stir up trouble. It was like he lived for it. He got some sick, manic pleasure from it.
“You’ve at least talked to the parents about this, right? Or someone?” He looked at Claire with his last sentence.
“Claire was there that night. And yes, Mom and Dad know we broke up.”
“And I’m sure you had a real heart-to-heart about it. Dad told you some overused metaphors, Mom told you not to stir up trouble, and you smiled like they are the best parents in the world.”
“Stop it.” I wanted to get along with my brother, but the only thing he wanted to do was make me feel bad about myself.
“Or what?” He smiled at me.
“Just don’t. Please.”
He held up his hands. “Fine, I’ll stay out of it.”
“Thank you.”
He put his plate in the sink. “Gotta do some laundry. We’ll catch up more later.”
When he was gone, Claire said, “You’re not really thinking about getting back together with Bradley, are you?”