Page 144 of More For Me

She rolls her eyes. “Are you ever going to stop bringing that up?”

“Seeing that traumatized me.”

“You were in third grade! Get over it already!” She sticks her finger right in my face. “There it is.”

I smack her hand away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The smile. You can try to hide it all you want, but I saw your mouth twitch, Bhai.”

“Good job, Nish. You accomplished your goal. You cheered me up. Will you leave now?”

“My goal is not to cheer you up,” she says. “My goal is to help you get your head out of your ass.”

“How did you even find me?” I’d told Leo I was camping for the weekend but I hadn’t given him any details.

“I tracked your phone,” she says, like that’s the most normal thing in the world to do.

“You’re insane.”

“And you’re being an ass,” she says, her voice losing the teasing edge, all sharpness and tense now. “I could excuse you running off from Mom’s last night—I was shocked about the separation, too. But hiding out in the woods because you’re too afraid to come home and talk to us? Jesus, Bodhi.”

“I broke up with Everly,” I blurt out, and immediately regret it. She goes still next to me, her mouth open in shock.

Her stunned silence doesn’t last long. “You were dating Everly?” she finally screeches. “How in the hell did I not know this?” She smacks my arm. “You were dating her and you didn’t tell me? Bodhi!”

“Can you not—”

“I don’t understand.” The tremble in her voice has me turning my head and I’m shocked to see tears in her eyes. “You’ve been in love with her since you met her and you guys started dating? Why wouldn’t you tell me this?”

My stomach twists painfully, some of that numbness finally ebbing away. “I don’t know.”

“Bullshit.”

I grit my teeth. “I didn’t want Mom to know and you can’t keep a secret to save your life.”

“Why wouldn’t you want Mom to know? Mom loves Everly—”

“Iknow.”

She just stares at me for a long moment, like she doesn’t even recognize me. “Explain,” she finally says, her voice so commanding that I don’t even consider refusing.

“I wanted it to be just for me,” I mutter, feeling like every bit the ass she accused me of being.

But something softens in my sister’s face, understanding washing over her features. “Oh, Bodhi.”

She’s sitting too close to me, seeing way too much. And I can’t stand it. So I get to my feet, turning away from my sister. “Can we walk?”

She doesn’t argue, merely gets up and follows me away from the campsite and into the woods. She lets me walk in quiet for a few minutes before she speaks again. “You have to stop doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“Trying so damn hard.”

“I don’t even know what that means.”

“It’s not your job to make everyone else happy, Bodhi. It’s not your job to solve every problem in this family.”

“Nisha—”