Thirteen Summers

forty-four

THIRTEEN SUMMERS

The living room smelt of melted candlewax and buttered popcorn, strewn party poppers and confetti decorated its floor. Leftover cake and snacks had already been put away.

A film played in the background but Josie paid no mind to it, instead her eyes were set on the flames that danced in the fireplace but her mind was elsewhere.

The St. Claires had just celebrated Roman's twenty-seventh birthday at home, he claimed he wanted a family night in as opposed to the fancy trip to Egypt that Cameron had finally convinced him to take.

Roman would only be gone for five days instead of the whole two weeks he originally intended to take, he just couldn't go away for that long when he had two baby siblings that needed him.

"What's on your mind?"

"I miss Rome." Josie's voice was no more than a whisper.

Madison snorted, "Babe, he hasn't even left yet."

The two were still downstairs, pjs & face masks on and toenails halfway painted.

It was a little past twelve o'clock on a Friday night, the only reason why Josie was allowed to be up this late.

They planned to have a sister sleepover before the older of the two ventured off to her boyfriend's for the weekend.

Since everyone had retreated to their own spaces, the St. Claire girls claimed the living room.

"I know but..." Josie's eyes stung but she held back her tears. "He won't be here when we wake up tomorrow, it's gonna be weird."

And since moving in with her family, with the exception of Cameron, she'd never been separated from any of them for more than a day or two and Roman was her favourite, it was safe to say she had become attached.

"He'll be back in no time." Madison shrugged, not seeing the big deal.

She was used to both Cameron and Roman going on various trips throughout the year, and before them, their father.

Josie wasn't used to any of that, after all it had been just her and her mother.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." She muttered, trying to shift her focus to her blue toenails, that Madison was currently painting.

"How's school?" Madison looked up at her, an eyebrow raised before a teasing smile appeared on her face. "Any cute boys?"

Kiara's face flashed in her mind at the mention of Madison's question, then the memory of her asking if Josie and Aiden were a thing haunted her, but she chose to ignore it, shaking her head.

She didn't like Aiden in that way.

"No, I haven't really talked to many boys in my grade." Josie explained, "I don't really want to...not right now, just focused on school."

"Probably for the best, relationships in school can be...distracting." Madison went a little quiet towards the end of that sentence.

Josie wanted to shift the attention from her, as she asked. "How's things with Kevin?"

Madison smiled, a dreamy look overtook her face. "Things are good, he really cares about me and I really care about him. You'd like him, I wish you could meet him."

"I can't meet him?" Josie was confused, she wasn't good with meeting new people but this was her sister's partner.

Madison shook her head, "Cam probably wouldn't be too happy about it, not without me introducing Kev to him first."