Changing You ✦ The Sequel

Chapter 27 {R}

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Even if I had known what to say to Jack after that day, I didn't get the chance to talk to him for the rest of the week.

I actually barely saw him the next few days, as he spent a lot of time at his girlfriend's house. When he did come home, it was always late at night and he'd be gone before I woke up, giving me the impression that he was avoiding me.

A few times, I managed to catch a glimpse of him at school. And each time, Camila had been clinging to his side like this annoying shadow.

Sorry, I meant parasite.

To say I hated it, would be an understatement. I hated that she gave me the feeling I couldn't talk to my own brother anymore. I hated how distant she made him; how different she made him from himself.

I tried to convince myself that maybe I just needed time to get used to Jack being in a relationship. That it probably had been the same for him when I started dating Zach.

But it wasn't the same, in so many aspects and for so many reasons, and I couldn't even begin to deny that.

I spent hours lying awake at night, trying to figure out what could have made him turn on Zach so all of a sudden, what he could've been talking about, what had caused the big change in his behaviour, but my mind had run wild with the worst kind of scenarios so I soon came to the conclusion that I didn't even want to give it another thought.

That didn't mean I could completely forget about it, though, as I still caught myself thinking about it when I got home from work that Saturday afternoon. You can imagine the confusion that struck me when I saw Jack's car parked in front of our house.

Imagine how I felt when I didn't only find him, but a living room full of people.

The moment I froze after I had stepped inside, provided me with a few seconds to scan over them.

I counted five people, Jack, Caleb and of course Camila being three of them. The other two — a tanned guy with cropped short curls, and a girl with fair skin and pale blond hair — I had never seen before, but they didn't seem much older than me.

"Hey, Riles," Jack greeted from his position on the couch, as he pushed himself up to straighten his back, his arm still resting around Camila's shoulders. He flashed me a smile that left me so completely dumbfounded that for a second I thought I must've gone delusional.

"Um, hey," I said back unsurely. The uncomfortable feeling in my stomach only increased when everyone stopped what they were doing to look at me, and I nervously tugged at the sleeves of my jacket.

"Guys," Jack referred to the two still anonymous teenagers sitting on the couch opposite from him, "this is Riley, my sister. Ri, these are Asher and Everly."

At the sound of their names, both of them gave me a smile, Asher even adding a playful salute, and I had to force myself to return one.

"We've heard so much about you," Everly said, her pale blue eyes, accentuated by a smooth curve of eyeliner, bright with excitement.

"Definitely not enough about your appearance, though, because Jack's description didn't even cover half of your beauty," Asher gushed out, combing a hand through the cropped curls right on top of his head. The sides of his head had been buzzed off, two lines cut into the short strands right above his temples.