When I'm With You

“Perfect. Don’t forget we have plans this weekend too!”

My brow furrows, and I try to remember what plans we could possibly have.

“What plans?”

“I swear, Emberlyn Locke! You’re the only girl I know who couldn’t care less that her twenty-first birthday is coming up. We have plans! All the girls. Even Dani’s in. Her parents are watching the boys, and you had better believe she’s ready to turn it up now that Evan’s finally off the tit.”

“You’re so crass,” I interrupt.

“No, I’m not. She’s the one who said it. The second he hit six months and tried to take off her nip with his tooth, she was done. Off the tit, she said. Time to party, she threatened. So Cohen is all-in for a girls’ night out getting his wife drunk off her ass because he says he will reap the benefits when she gets home.”

“That should be interesting,” I comment, not really listening to her.

“You bet your ass. She hasn’t had a lick to drink since right after the honeymoon when she found out he knocked her up again. She might just be all the entertainment of the evening we need.”

“Who else is coming? And what are we doing?” I ask, picking at some of the dog hair and lint on my leggings.

“Everyone,” she responds but doesn’t elaborate and doesn’t answer my other question. That could mean so many things, but since I sadly don’t have many friends outside of Nikki and the close-knit group of kids that make up our ‘family,’ I figure everyone isn’t that big of a bunch. I know it’s pointless to try to get my stubborn sister to spill the beans when she clearly doesn’t want me to know the plans, so I just let it go.

“Sounds like a blast.” I dryly sigh.

“Yup. I also heard from Dani that Nate’s new club is opening this weekend. I can’t wait to check it out! He hasn’t said much, but just by the hype he’s gaining on social media alone, it’s supposed to be a club like no other.”

At the mention of Nate, my throat closes and I forget about the lint picking.

Of course, she doesn’t understand that Nate is the main reason I’ve been skipping our monthly family dinners at the Reid house, a tradition started before I was even born. No one knows that he’s the reason I’ve backed away and now spend so much time focusing on my paintings that I eat, sleep, and breathe brushstrokes.

And humiliatingly enough, not even Nate seems to know what he did to cause me to pull back.

“We aren’t going there? Right?” I ask.

“I’m not telling you what we have planned. Plus, I heard it’s sold out, tickets only, for opening weekend. Oh! I already talked to Nikki, and she’s also in. I think that friend of yours is coming too since Seth is going.”

I don’t even waste my breath to respond. My sister had made no bones about letting me know she didn’t approve of the man I’ve been seeing for the last two months. She loves Nikki, even gets along with her boyfriend, Seth, but Levi … no, she hated him on the spot. It’s been a constant bone of contention between us. She does nothing to hide the fact that she doesn’t like him—even to his face—while I’m helplessly stuck trying to keep the both of them happy.

Of course, Levi only gets frustrated when Maddi starts her crap, so it’s made me pull back from her more to keep him happy; another thing that hasn’t escaped her notice.

Just another reason I’ve felt like breaking things off with Levi is the best move. I hate that I’ve even let him come between my sister and me.

“No worries about Levi; he’s working this weekend. Please drop it, Maddi. I don’t have the patience to deal with it right now. I’ll be there tonight, okay? We can talk more about this stupid birthday celebration then.”