Falling Slowly

Pt.2|Ch.7

"You've seriously never done this before?" Aiden stared at me incredulously.

I returned her confusion as I shuffled the deck of cards. "Should I have?"

"If you were trying to be a respected member of society, then yes."

"Fine," I rolled my eyes. "You do it, then."

"Gladly." She agreed, pulling her legs up underneath her. "Sky, could you please hand me a card?"

He fished through the deck, before handing her an ace of spades. "An ace for my ace."

She rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless.

Holding the card expertly in her hand, she extended her arm. With one decisive flick of her wrist, the card cut through the air, hitting the wall with a 'snap'.

My eyes widened. "Okay, I'm not gonna lie, that was pretty cool."

"Give it a try." She handed me a three of clubs.

I tried to mirror her movements, but the card floated lifelessly to the ground.

Sky got a kick out of that, but Aiden shut him up. "You'll get it eventually."

I picked the card up off the ground. "Where'd you learn to do it?"

"Some guy on a bus, when I was six or seven."

Sky raised an eyebrow at her. "'Some guy on a bus'?"

"That's as shifty as a swinging trapeze." I mumbled.

Aiden looked up at me. "What?"

"Nothing."

(I finally started listening to Tuck Everlasting and lemme tell ya my emotions are everywhere)

The front door to Austyn and her mom's apartment then opened, followed by a loud, familiar voice.

"Ben! They let me get a bagel!" Josh screeched, running into the living room to show us his chocolate chip bagel.

"We got enough bagels for the rest of you, too." Austyn assured, setting the brown paper bag on the counter. "But Josh is the only one that got chocolate chip."

"Injustice!" Sky declared indignantly.

She put her hands on her hips. "You can choose between plain and blueberry, or you can skip breakfast altogether. Your pick."

I watched her bicker with her cousin, her dark hair falling over her shoulders as she shook her head at Sky's nonsense.

"You're staring again." Aunt Stacey remarked, startling me.

"Oh, sorry." I dropped my gaze to my feet.

"I'm joking." She laughed, taking the seat next to me with a coffee mug in her hand.

"Is it actually that obvious, though?" I asked, glancing up at her.

"I've never seen anything more obvious in my life." She shrugged. "But that might be because I'm her mother."