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Drew plants his arm on the doorframe, blocking my path. “Hey, so,” he whispers quickly and for my ears only, “I’m sort of caught in the middle of all this, so please don’t misconstrue my actions as me picking a side or let this negatively affect your opinion of me. You look really nice tonight, by the way. Seth!” His voice rises again as my brother appears next to him. “Found her.”
Seth nods. “Can I talk to you for a sec?” he asks me.
I glare at them both. “It’s fine. You don’t have to kick me out,” I say, annoyed. “I was just leaving.”
“I’m not going to kick you out.”
Seth glances over my shoulder at Jenna. She lingers behind me with her arms tightly crossed and her token bitch expression, and I say that with the greatest of love and appreciation. Jenna, for all her faults, always has my back when I truly need it — especially when it comes to Seth.
Seth exhales. “Just five minutes. Please. In private, preferably.”
I sigh. Might as well get this over with. “Fine,” I say.
Drew bobs his head at Jenna. “You want to get a drink?” he asks her.
My stomach churns at that. So, not only do I have to deal with Seth tonight, I have to lose my crush to Jenna. It’s freshman year all over again. Literally.
I look down as she steps forward to join Drew.
“Sure!” she says. She pats my back as she passes. “I’ll be right outside,” she adds, mostly to Seth as a warning.
Seth nods as she leaves, gladly kicking the door closed behind her.
I take my seat on the toilet seat again. Seth stays standing, but he leans against the door with his gaze on the floor. I fold my arms on my lap and wait for him to say… whatever the hell he’s going to say.
“So,” his throat clears, “you’re going to Chicago North, huh?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I answer.
“Dad told me you were staying in Iowa.”
I bite down hard. “I kinda stopped updating him after he told me he wouldn’t help me out, so…”
“He did?”
I nod.
“Jeez.” He shifts his weight to the other foot. “He paid my room and board my first two years. Even Mom sent me money for groceries now and then.”
“He told me art wasn’t a viable career path and that he wasn’t to fund four years of me sitting on my ass,” I say, air quoting.
“Damn.”
“When I saw how good the art program was here, I applied out of spite. Picked up a few small scholarships, too.”
He nods, impressed. “That’s cool.”
“I honestly didn’t expect to run into you much at all. It’s a big campus…” I bite my cheek. “Is this really what you wanted to talk about? Our parents playing favorites…”
Seth takes a breath. “So, I was kind of an asshole back there.”
“Kind of?”
“Okay, I was an asshole back there. I shouldn’t have done that, and I’m sorry.”
I blink, genuinely surprised. My brother has never apologized to me before. Ever.
“Why did you do it?” I ask.
