Thirteen Summers

forty-three

THIRTEEN SUMMERS

Of course, everyone had heard of her leaving the sleepover early. Not a single one of her siblings, who were home, were asleep when she arrived home later that night, after all it was a Friday night.

She went straight to her room, not in the mood for any further interactions that night.

When someone knocked on her door, she ignored it.

Then when that same someone opened the door, whispering her name, she still ignored it and pretended that she was asleep despite being wide awake.

"She's clearly sleeping, idiot." Josie heard Kai's quiet voice, his usual tone.

"I was just making sure..." Nick's voice followed.

It went quiet and she assumed they'd left, flickering her eyes open to see them at her door, she accidentally made eye contact with Nick who was looking straight at her, inspecting. Kai stood behind him, leaning on the door frame, a lollipop in his mouth.

"Aha, I knew you were faking!" Nick gave her a goofy grin, walking over.

Josie huffed, sitting up slowly, she'd been caught.

Nick plopped down on her bed beside her, Kai following suit and lying down in front of them instead.

"What's my favourite little sister up to?" Nick asked.

"I'm your only little sister..."

"Well, you're my only little sister and you're still not my favourite." Kai interjected, though there was a hint of a smile on his usual blank face that indicated that he was joking.

Josie smiled but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Was there something you guys needed?"

Which was a nicer way of saying, what the hell do you want?

"Uh, yeah we-" Nick tried to think of a reason, looking at Kai who shrugged. "We were..."

"He was worried shitless, we came to check on you." Kai was straight forward, as usual. His eyes found hers as he asked, "Want a lollipop?"

Josie was surprised but nodded, Kai was never one to share his snacks usually so of course, she'd take him up on the chance.

"Thanks." She started to unwrap the lollipop.

"No, I wasn't. Fuck off." Nick whispered harshly, nudging Kai with his foot.

Then he looked at his sister, who wore a face void of emotion. He couldn't tell what she was thinking or feeling, closing herself off to others, a trait she shared with Kai.

"Okay, I was. You came home early and I know it's been hard for you and with your autism assessment coming up, I just wanted to see how you were doing."

There it was.

The hovering.

This was what Caleb had warned her about, except this has been going on long before she came here.

Though it only seemed to intensify after news of her impending diagnosis.

She wondered if even when she was an adult, if people would stop treating her like a child.

Josie was a child, she knew that but it was the difference in the way she was treated and how other kids her age were.

Like a little child.

It had always been like this, her entire life, people talking down at her like she was a little child. It didn't matter if they were adults or people her own age, most people seemed to treat her like that.