You and Everything After (Falling #2)(24)

“Fucker. I hate it when you do that,” he says, standing with a heavy slouch as he drags his feet toward his sneaker. He keeps walking down the hall when he picks it up, though, so I know he’s just as smitten as I am.

I push the door closed and turn to look at the simple brown package lying on my bed. It’s one of those over-sized envelopes, and it’s super puffy. It looks like a shirt. I bet it’s a shirt. That was Kelly’s thing—she loved those shirts with really silly sayings, and I thought they were a tremendous waste of resources, human labor, and money. She would buy me one for every birthday, holiday, anniversary, or whim just to tick me off. I loved it. I loved her for doing it.

Suddenly, I’m back on my bed, holding the package in my hand. For some reason, I smell it, wanting to know if it carried any sign of her along with it during its postal route. It just smells like cardboard and ink.

When I tear the corner open, I see the white fabric and confirm my suspicion immediately. I can’t help that it still makes me smile, and I rip the rest of the envelope away to hold the shirt up and reveal the punch line. It’s a stick man, humping the word it. Fuck it. Ha! Okay, that’s funny.

I toss the envelope in the trash and fold the shirt up and slide it in my top drawer. There really might be a time and place to wear that one—it’s a keeper. She finally found the one joke shirt I think is worth the twenty bucks she probably spent on it.

There’s a Facebook message waiting for me when I open my laptop, and I see Kelly’s picture looking back at me.



Well?



She must have followed the tracking code to see if I got it yet.



It took you something like 15 shirts to finally find one I think is funny, but I have to admit it—that shirt kicks ass. Thanks!



I hit send and start to close my laptop, but a message from her pops up right away. She must be online.



I KNEW IT! Glad you like it.



Happy Anniversary, Ty.



There’s this feeling that accompanies stress and anxiety, it’s like a spoon pushing into the side of your gut. It’s similar to that sensation I get when I go on a really charged roller coaster—only sicker. Yeah, I have that feeling…right now! I don’t respond. In fact, I exit out of Facebook completely, and turn my laptop off, worried that somehow some internal camera is switching to on allowing Kelly to see my forehead broken out in a cold sweat.

It’s our anniversary. She’s right, and the thought floated through my mind once this morning, but I quickly dismissed it. I think of it every year at the start of September, and I wonder if she’s remembering our first date at the fall-festival dance, too. The first year she just sent me an email, acknowledging it. The last two years, she’s blown it off completely. This is the first time she’s gone as far as to send me something though.

Maybe it’s just a funny shirt. And maybe she was just trying to be thoughtful.

Maybe I won’t wear it now, though.

My afternoon appointments rescue me from overanalyzing shit. I grab my workout bag and lock up our door. I can hear Nate and Cass talking down the hall, so I follow the sound of their voices. I have to give Nate a key anyhow, so I use it as an excuse to invite myself in.

I enter the room and catch Cass at the door.

“You love me and you know it!” I hear Nate say around the corner. Cass bends down quickly, kissing me lightly on the lips before rolling her eyes and whispering, “Your brother’s a pain in the ass.” She winks and picks up her step toward the elevator, clearly making her way to the gym.

“You better not!” I say, not really liking Nate using the word love with Cass. Stupid and petty? Yes. Do I give a shit if he thinks so? No.

Nate’s elbows-deep in Rowe’s drawers, flipping them over so they dump out all of her clothes when she comes back. It’s funny, and really, I’ll take any excuse to rifle through Cass’s drawers. I join in and flip her drawers over, too, paying special attention to the lacey things in her top drawer. I am looking forward to seeing those things in action.

My brother’s in love; I can tell. It’s not so much the way he talks about Rowe all of the time, but rather the way he doesn’t talk about her. This thing he has going with her…it isn’t transient. And as much fun as I had playing big-brother-little-brother party time with him this summer, this feels more like the way things are supposed to be. And it’s not just him—it’s me, too.

He pauses on one of the drawers, and he’s holding a picture. I can see over his shoulder it’s one of Rowe and the other guy; I wince before he turns around. “This is like the one I was talking about. Do you think she has a boyfriend?” he asks. I have no clue, so I tell him he should ask, but I also make a mental note to ask Cass about Rowe and that picture, and then it hits me—I have someone to ask. Cass is someone—my someone. Holy shit, how the f*ck did that happen?

We get the drawers back in place and lock up behind us, heading to the elevator. I’m running late for my first training session, but I hear Paige’s voice as the elevator doors open. I shift my eyes to Nate and urge him to pick up his step. I follow him back to our room.

“Dude, I can’t stand that chick! How is it that I’m crazy about her sister?” Nate’s shit-eating grin clues me in on my big slip, but I don’t really care that he knows how I feel. I like a girl, a girl that isn’t Kelly. Kelly, who just wished me a happy anniversary from her home in Baker, where she lives with her husband and brand new baby boy. What the fu—