Just For Glory | COMPLETED

Welcome to the High Road. -Ish

LAST FEW CHAPTERS

It was obvious that Jamie was surprised to see me downstairs at seven in the morning.

"Why are you up so early?" she asked from the doorway, having skidded to a halt at the sight of me sitting, fully dressed, at the kitchen table.

I looked over at her and back down at the table before answering. "I have to pick up Piper for school."

"The first day of her last year school and she's not driving the Impala?" Jamie said, walking over to the refrigerator. She was already in her uniform, minus knee-socks and shoes. The end of that summer marked the first year she hadn't once complained about the ugly blazers. Jamie had been in school for over a week already, and despite my having had that last week, I still couldn't quite come to terms with the fact that my summer had just slipped by.

Shrugging, I replied, "It's in the shop—problem with the muffler, as you may have noticed."

She laughed, shaking her head slightly. "Yeah, it woke me up that one time she dropped you off at like two in the morning after you guys went to that midnight showing of...what's that movie called again?"

"Are you kidding me? Come on Jamie, even you should get Casablanca," I said, raising an eyebrow. As she pulled her light hair into a ponytail, she stuck her tongue out at me; I replied with equally maturity by rolling my eyes.

"Well, excuse me for not being as cultured as you. I'm sorry, Donny, but I don't trust your movie taste after I slept through that snooze-fest about a jury. So, so boring."

"Jamie, Casablanca is your favorite kind of movie—unrealistic romance. The ending's good, though," I said dryly. She tapped her fingers on the counters, staring at the toaster as if willing it to return the cooked pop-tarts to her more quickly.

Over her shoulder, she said, "If you like the ending to a romance, I probably won't. Why are you so cynical when it comes to love?"

In my mind, I briefly pondered whether to by fully honest at tell her that I had "comforted" my own mother far too many times to be able to look at love as something warm and/or fuzzy. However, I remembered Piper's reprimand for being so blunt with my half-sister, and while I wouldn't always heed such warnings, that one sort of sent me on a guilt-trip.

So, disregarding one (large) facet of the truth, I remarked, "I don't know why people, even young people—teenagers, whatever—are always trying to claim 'love' as a verifying factor in their meaningless, shallow relationships."

Jamie laughed, her large, round eyes sparkling. "Ouch, harsh! But aren't you the king of meaningless, shallow relationships, Donny?" As soon as she said it, the smile died on her lips as if she were wishing to take it back.

I half-shrugged, raising one shoulder. "Yes, you could say that, but I've never said anything remotely close to 'love' to justify them."

Narrowing her eyes and smiling very slightly. "So it's impossible for teenagers to love each other?"

"I didn't say that, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't know of a single teenager who would know what that even means. Love doesn't come in two weeks, contrary to popular belief," I muttered, silently wondering how I had gotten into this conversation. Damn Casablanca.

Tightening the blue ribbon around her white-blonde ponytail, Jamie shook her head slightly. "Funny, I had almost this same conversation with Piper a while ago."

"Oh really? And what did she have to say about it?" I asked, only half-interested. I was mostly curious, as always, about when Piper talked to Jamie. When was I not around?