My Heroine

Chapter Ten

“So have you talked to Katie yet?” Trey said, his voice sounding muffled as if he had his face buried under his pillow. I sighed, taking a seat next to the window. It was Sunday afternoon and Trey had called, saying that he had already been released from the hospital. He was better now; even if some of his fingers were still badly broken, but besides that and just a few stitches that would eventually go away, he looked like as if nothing had happened.

“Yeah, but she wasn’t really happy about it,” I said, propping up my elbow on the windowsill. The streets seemed almost deserted. Since it was Sunday, a lot of the kids who stayed in Harvard’s houses would go home just for the day to enjoy some time with their family. I was stuck in the house, though, since there was no point spending on tickets going to and from Arizona.

“Why not?” Trey asked, and I heard some shuffling next to him, like the sound of crisp bedding being adjusted.

I tapped my fingers against the windowsill. My fingernails were growing quite long, and I made a mental note to myself to stop by one of the convenience stores and buy myself a nail cutter. My hair was growing long, too, and so I added it to my mental list of things to do. “I don’t think that my presence at that time was really enjoyable.” I sighed. “Besides, it would be useless going after her. She’s found someone new, anyway. My efforts would just be deemed futile and would go to waste.”

There were a few moments of silence. He was just thinking of what to say, probably choosing words that wouldn’t sting so much. “I never thought Katie would be the one to do that. I always thought that it would be you who would cheat.”

I scowled. “How dare you, brother,” I scolded in a fake British accent that Trey and I used when we were younger; where sword fights with cardboard weapons and pillow dragons were still the epitomes of our shallow, childish happiness. I heard him chuckle form the other end of the line, though it was a sad one.

“How’s he like?” Trey asked, I could hear him tugging on the cord of the receiver.

I shrugged and told him what I knew about Jacob. It felt weird repeating Falyn’s words over the phone to Trey—it made me sound gay if you didn’t know that I just quoting Falyn.

“Wait wait wait,” Trey said, interrupting me while I was in the middle of mockingly raving about Jacob and his “perfectness”. “Who’s Falyn?”

“A girl from my class, why?” I asked him, my eyebrow raising. I could hear the skepticism in my brother’s voice, and I could just imagine him grinning mischievously into the receiver. Trey loved teasing me.

“Is she pretty?” Trey asked. I could practically hear him smirking from the other end of the line. I sighed in exasperation, sitting up from my chair and opening the front door. It was about 5:30 and the afternoon was still shining brightly; though it wasn’t as hot as it was two hours ago.

“She’s okay, I guess,” I said and shrugged, closing the front door shut behind me. I settled on the front steps of the house like I always did, since there wasn’t anything interesting in the house anyway.

I heard Trey chuckle. “Well, I’ll take it that you think she’s pretty, then.”

“I did not say anything.”

“But that’s what you said when I asked you about Katie before,” Trey said a matter-of-factly. I opened my mouth, but then closed it again, remembering that morning after I drove her back home because she had the flu.

I parked the car a little too forcefully against the sidewalk, huffing as I pulled the keys out of the ignition. Stuffing my hands in my jeans pocket, I found Trey by the front porch, all sweaty—still clad in his workout attire. I tossed the keys towards him and he caught it. He followed me to the kitchen.