How dare he? The last time I was with him, I’d thought – well, it didn’t matter now, but I’d thought we shared something special. It was silly, just the slight brush of our arms against each other while watching a movie. A long gaze. It was stupid.
I didn’t even recognize this new Derek.
‘I’ll come back later. Sorry I bothered you.’ I put my water bottle on the counter and spun around, heading for the door.
Derek stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.
‘No, I’m sorry.’ The smirk fell off his face, and for the first time since I’d arrived he looked like the Derek I used to know. ‘Honestly, you’re not bothering me.’
He was so earnest, it reminded me of when we were little kids and I got stuck in the washing machine trying to hide from him during hide-and-seek.
‘So. Boyfriend problems?’
‘No,’ I snapped. ‘For your information, my mom lied to me and I’m really pissed off about it.’
Derek leaned away, as if blown back by the force of my anger. ‘Shit. Sorry. What about?’
When I didn’t reply, he headed toward the stairs. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s go downstairs.’
I hesitated, confused by his quick change of personalities. Maybe he was more like Madison than I’d thought. I followed him to the far side of the kitchen, across the hall, and down the stairs to the basement.
‘My mom and dad gave me the downstairs. I think they’re just hoping I’ll disappear down here.’ He chuckled, but the laugh didn’t quite reach his eyes.
Downstairs was more welcoming than upstairs, all blond wood and worn brown leather. A grunge band blasted on a massive surround-sound stereo system. A huge entertainment center and two leather chairs took up one side of the basement, while the other side had an unmade king-size bed. At the back of the room, a hallway led to darkness.
He shoved clothes off a leather chair. ‘Here, sit down.’
He picked up a set of remote controls and turned off the stereo, then pressed a button. The ornately carved walnut doors of the entertainment center opened slowly, revealing a huge plasma-screen television. He flopped onto the other chair and flicked through the channels until he found a rerun of Family Guy.
He looked up at me. ‘You gonna sit?’
‘Um, sure.’ If Madison came home and found me hanging with her brother, she’d totally flip. I perched on the arm of the chair and tugged on the tail of the silver bracelet at my wrist.
‘So, what’d your mom lie about?’ he asked.
‘Well, last week some kids from my school and I were at U-Dub at this thing to get juniors ready for college. We saw this girl – Kendall – and she looked just like me. I’m not even kidding. Everybody said it. Like sisters.’
‘That’s weird.’
‘Yeah. So yesterday I asked my mom about my dad. Like what was he like and did he have any other family and she mentioned that he had brown eyes.’
‘So?’
‘First of all, I’m in advanced biology. My mom has blue eyes, so if my dad had brown eyes, it’s pretty unlikely I’d have green eyes. Not impossible, but genetically unlikely.’
‘And second?’
‘Second of all, I asked her when I was thirteen what color eyes he had, and she said green. And now she said brown.’
‘But why would she tell you two different colors?’
I threw my hands up and slid into the chair. ‘She’s getting confused with her lies.’
‘And this girl, Kendall. She has green eyes too?’
‘Yeah. And this same chin dimple.’ I pointed at the cleft in my chin. ‘I Googled it. It’s genetic. But my mom doesn’t have it.’
‘So Kendall looks a lot like you, she has a chin dimple, she has the same color eyes as you, and now your mom lied about what color your dad’s eyes were – and you think, what? That you’re related to this girl?’
‘Well, yeah.’ Saying it that way made it sound really stupid.
‘It seems a bit, you know, Hollywood.’
‘I know,’ I admitted. ‘But my mom lied to me. We never lie to each other. . .’
I chewed my lip.
‘At least, I thought we didn’t,’ I amended. ‘But now I’m wondering what else she’s lied about. And . . .’ I pulled the piece of white card out of my back pocket. ‘I found this in her room. It was in a shoebox in her closet.’
I held it out to Derek, and he read the text. ‘Sorry. Sorry for what?’
‘I don’t know. But it was with my birth certificate. It must have something to do with me.’
‘Have you looked her up on Facebook?’
‘My mom?’
‘No. Kendall.’
I shook my head. The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind.
‘Well, did you ask her who her father is? Find out his name?’
‘I didn’t think of any of that stuff when I met her.’
Derek grabbed a shiny silver MacBook from his bedside table. He brought it back to the chair, flipped the lid up, and opened Facebook.
‘Do you want to look?’ Derek asked.
Madison said I was a doormat. Mom said I let Madison walk all over me. Maybe they were both right. Maybe it was time I stood up and did something for myself.
I nodded. ‘Yeah, okay.’
I leaned over his shoulder and typed in my log-in details, aware of how close we were. He smelled just faintly of pine trees and the clean, soapy smell of shaving cream.
Kendall Montgomery’s page popped up right away. In her profile picture she was pouting, her eyes creased as if she was about to smile. I didn’t want to know her. And yet I did.
‘Holy shit.’ Derek’s eyes popped open wide. ‘She does look just like you.’
‘I know. It’s creepy. What should I do?’
‘What do you want to do?’
I was surprised. People never asked me what I wanted. I usually just went along for the ride.
I looked into Derek’s midnight-blue eyes. Something in them made me feel safe enough to find out things I should probably leave alone.
I leaned over him and pressed Add Friend.
‘I want to talk to her,’ I said.
ABI
october
The sound of Tyler’s feet thumping down the front steps jolted me out of my stunned trance.
‘Wait!’ I flung myself out the open front door and into the rain, crashing into the driver’s door of his Jeep as the engine vroomed to life.
A flash went off from my front yard, but I ignored it.
‘Wait!’ I smacked my open palm against Tyler’s door.
Tyler rolled the window down, his eyebrows drawn together. His eyes flicked up to the reporters watching our exchange.
‘What