The Life Of A Crazy Girl And Her 10 Brothers

Escapism

It took Calix another two minutes to catch up and he glanced at me, gray eyes quizzical, to Ember and Milo, who shrugged.

We walked into the main office, immediately catching sight of the vivid purple hair of Sylvia, chatting with the office lady.

"Hey, guys!" Synthia turned, a grin spreading across her face.

"Let's go." I headed out the door.

They followed me and when we got outside, Synthia asked where we going.

"Darcy's," I said shortly.

She frowned and checked her watch. "It's like one thirty."

I stared at her, intense and unblinking, and she held her hands up. "Fine, let's go to Darcy's."

"I'll ride with Calix," Ember said, sliding behind him on his motorcycle and wrapping her hands around his waist.

I strode to Milo's car and he started it up as I hopped in the passenger seat.

We were on the road when he asked the question I knew was coming: "What's wrong?"

I stared at him as I'd with Sylvia and he scoffed. "You know that doesn't work on me."

I paused. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh?"

I glanced at him and he had an eyebrow raised in a way that made it seem like he was judging me.

"Shut up, Milo," I muttered.

"I didn't say anything."

"You don't have to. I can feel you judging me."

He shifted in his seat and I glanced at him to see that he'd moved so all of his attention was on me.

"Just tell me what's wrong."

Silence.

"What's wrong Avy?" His gaze was boring into the side of my face.

I hesitated but didn't give in.

"Come on, just tell me."

I gave in. "Fine! I had a small argument with Seth."

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "So? You and Seth have arguments all the time. This isn't the first of last one, so what's the big deal?"

I shifted in my seat, uncomfortably. "My past failures may have been mentioned."

"Elaborate," he demanded, eyes narrowed.

"He said I didn't have good judgment because of the woods incident, and the knives incident, and bridge incident."

He laughed. "And he was right!"

"And he went on a whole tangent on how I needed to be more careful."

He shook his head. "You two are a mess. So are you going to do the usual stew for two days and then confront him in a fit of anger thing?"

I frowned. Am I that predicable?

He rolled into the parking lot of Darcy's.

"I will not. I'm not going to talk to him until he apologizes."

"For what?"

"For making me seem like some damsel in distress."

He blinked at me. "I can think of at least seven different incidents where you were the damsel in distress."

My lip curled and I got out of the car and slammed the door, before striding into Darcy's.

Ember, Calix, and Synthia were already inside, sitting in the lounge area and I sauntered over to them, squishing myself in between Calix and Synthia, draping my legs over Calix's lap.