Sister Mother

Chapter 1

Four-and-a-half years later

Leo

Shit, it's cold out!

I exited a café only to run into the building directly next to it. It was freezing. The blizzard that was expected to start falling this afternoon had turned the previously nippy temperatures into a freezing cold abyss. I tucked my hands inside the pockets of my jeans and walked deeper into the library.

"Cold out there, I take it?" a man behind the front desk asked me.

I nodded. "Freezing. It's not supposed to start snowing until tonight though, right?"

"Not what I heard. It should have started an hour ago," he said. He had white-silvery streaks of hair flowing from his head.

I took my hands out of my pockets and exhaled on them. "I'll hang out here until it passes. I'm a bit of a wimp in the cold. That alright?"

"Long as you read something," the man said as he pointed deeper into the building.

I shrugged.

Reading wasn't really my thing, but hey, neither was journalism, and that was apparently what I did for a living. Eight months ago, I graduated with a liberal arts degree, only to realize that I had no idea what to do with it. College had been just about the greatest time of my life. I made some good friends, experienced freedom and being on my own and far away from my father's heavy hand for the first time. I went overboard, with just about everything, first of all women. I had a lot of girlfriends, but never the one I wanted most of all. I bounced from major to major with no real reason other than getting bored too easily.

Addie McKenna had me wrapped around her finger from the start. She caught my eye immediately, and the more we got to know each other, the more I wanted her. She was smart, funny, fearless and she saw through me like no one ever had before. I fell for her hard and fast and would have made a move on her if she hadn't been so stubborn. She knew me better than anyone else did. Once she asked me how an economics paper, I was writing was going, and I fibbed to her and told her that it was going great. She immediately shook her head and told me to meet her in the library so that she could help me with it. When I asked her how she knew I was lying, she said "you can't keep your eyes open when you lie." She was right. I was physically incapable of keeping my eyes open whenever I told a lie. I hadn't known about my lame tell until she figured it out, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't even lie to myself without blinking in the bathroom mirror. She knew me better than I knew myself and the blinking thing was just the beginning.

College was over now. I definitely would have made a move on her before we graduated if she'd only made a move first.

Addie was supposed to be at our commencement. If she had been, I would have ended our game of making each other jealous and who's-going-to-make-the-first-move right after we got our diplomas. I found out after the ceremony that she requested her diploma to be sent to her parents' house. I didn't have her number and the most recent thing she posted on social media was a screenshot of her final grades. Lesson learned, Adds. I should have made the first move.

I wandered mindlessly down a few aisles, only to stop when I saw Mags Parker sitting at one of the desktops. She had a giant backpack sitting next to her.

"Mags?" I asked.

My college friend's green eyes turned wide and her blonde curls bounced up and down as she turned around and saw me.

"Leo? No way!" She said before she stood up and hugged me. "How are you doing?"

"Not bad. You?"

Mags, otherwise known as Maggie and I were never that close. She was Addie's roommate and fellow pre-med major, but we hung out a lot too. To make Addie jealous, I once asked Mags out on a date. It didn't go anywhere because Mags and I were always completely platonic, but it spited Addie. Not enough to get her to make a move, but enough for her face to turn as red as hair.