Seasons Change

15.

Chapter 15.

My heart pounded in my throat as I sat in stunned silence, unable to wrap my brain around the fact that my awful roommate was standing in my father's house. How was this even possible?
I glanced over at Dylan, wondering if he had invited her home for Thanksgiving as his date, or something equally twisted. But that didn't make any sense. If Dylan had been the one to invite Avery, she would have shown up when he did. And Tony had said something about his daughter.

I gulped, feeling sick at the thought. It was too horrible to contemplate. If Avery was Tony's daughter, and Tony was my step-father, that would make Avery...my stepsister? I felt completely blindsided. Had Avery known about this? And why was I just now finding out?

My only consolation was that Dylan looked just as shocked as I felt. His normally tanned had paled considerably, and he kept glancing between Avery and me, as though waiting for the inevitable verbal sparring to start. Not that I could blame him. Avery and me in the same room together was a recipe for disaster, even though none of the others knew enough to grasp the gravity of the situation.

Tony cleared his throat. "Everyone, this is my daughter, Avery. Avery, this is your stepsister, Lilly, her father, and her friends."

Avery smiled coyly, her voice sugary sweet as she replied, "Oh, Lilly and I already know each other. We're roomies."

That was one way of putting it. A very mild, understated way of putting it. It would have been more accurate to say that we were enemies, but even so, Avery's words made Kelsey and Luke look at me with eyebrows raised. Each of them had been privy to enough conversations about Avery to know that my roommate was pretty much pure evil.

Dylan let out a long, slow laugh. "Well, this just got interesting," he said with a smirk. I glared at him, willing him to shut up. I wasn't sure how much my mother and Tony knew about the roommate situation with Avery. Considering the fact that Tony had just introduced us, I was willing to bet they didn't know about it at all.

Mom shot me a questioning look. "Really? Why didn't you tell me that you and Avery were roommates?"

I crossed my arms, returning her look with a frosty glare. If my mom wanted to act all indignant that she wasn't privy to every detail of my life, fine. Two could play at that game. "Why didn't you tell me I have a stepsister?" I asked.

Mom's face wrinkled in confusion. "Of course I told you," she said, although she looked less than certain. "Besides, she was at the wedding."

Dad frowned. "But Lilly wasn't," he reminded her.

Mom had invited me, and had wanted me to bring a date, but since she had decided to get married in California, I had chosen to stay home. There had been too much going on at the time, and I had just started dating Luke. Apparently, missing the wedding meant I had missed out on some important information. Like the fact that Tony had a daughter my age.

"Oh, right," Mom said, looking a bit sheepish. That was my mother, for you. She loved me, in her own way, but she was so scatterbrained at times, it was a wonder that she had stayed married to my dad as long as she had. Most of the time, she acted more like a teenager than a mother. "So, you wouldn't have met Avery, then. Not at the wedding, at least. But I'm sure I introduced the two of you at some point."

I shook my head, completely certain she had not. "Mom, I just met Tony for the first time today. I assure you, I had no idea that he even had a daughter before today. I thought Avery was just a randomly assigned roommate."

Which reminded me that Avery had been awfully quiet for this entire conversation. "Did you know?" I asked, glancing over at her. She had taken a seat beside Tony, and was sitting quietly, watching the drama go down with a self-satisfied smirk.