Sisters In Love (Snow Sisters, Book One: Love in Bloom Series)

Chapter Nine, Sisters in Love

Chapter Nine

Danica and Michelle sat by the window in Crumbles Bakery, surrounded by the homey aroma of coffee and freshly baked bread. Because Michelle’s past was so traumatic, Danica tried to find cozy places for them to meet. She believed that smells and surroundings could have an impact on one’s mood, though if Michelle’s mood was any indication, she’d been dead wrong. Danica enjoyed being Michelle’s Big Sister. It was a different experience from being Kaylie’s older, biological sister. She looked at Michelle, slumped over the table, with her straight, bottle-black hair hanging down to the middle of her back. Their thirteen-year age difference made her more like an aunt than a sister, but Danica was still younger than Michelle’s mom, which made her more relatable. That might be why they got along so well. Sometimes, they just sat and talked for hours, and other times they went to the movies, bookstores, or museums. She thought again about the youth center she had longed to open and wondered, if there were such a place, would Michelle feel like she fit in?

Michelle broke off pieces of the apple-cinnamon muffin before her, dropping the fingertip-sized pieces onto her tongue.

“So, what’s new? How’s Nola?” Michelle had lived with her grandmother Nola since her mother had gone into the rehab facility. Danica tried to ignore her pounding hangover.

Michelle shrugged, her eyes still trained on the muffin.

“Is her health okay?”

Michelle pursed her lips and nodded.

It usually took a few minutes for Michelle to open up each week, but today she appeared more sullen than usual. She wore her signature black jeans and baggy, black T-shirt.

“So, what else is new with you? Is school okay?” Danica pushed.

Michelle looked up at Danica quickly, then back down at the table.

Bingo! “Anything you want to talk about?” Danica asked.

Michelle shook her head.

They sat in uncomfortable silence for several minutes, until Michelle lifted her eyes, staring up at Danica from behind her thick, dark bangs.

“School sucks.” She dropped her eyes.

Success! “Yeah, it does suck. I remember high school. Everyone wants to be invisible, and those who don’t are so obnoxious that you wish you could just tell them off—which, of course, would be social suicide.”

Michelle smiled.

Danica knew she was finally getting through. She gained a different type of satisfaction when dealing with Michelle than when she dealt with her paying clients. It was so difficult to be a teenager, with what could feel like insurmountable peer pressures and hormones driving them in new and different directions. Sometimes she rued her decision to follow her parents’ guidance and take the financially safe route of being a therapist. But that was water under the bridge, so she’d focus on helping Michelle as best as she could. “I remember wanting to wear the right clothes, say the right thing, date the right guys.”

Michelle’s smile faded.

“But I never could—date the right guys, I mean. The ones who were popular were assholes, and I wasn’t really attracted to the ones who weren’t. Gosh, that sounds bad. It’s not like I had many choices. I was even nerdier then than I am now.” Danica took a sip of her coffee. “If that was even possible.” She thought of those painful years, remembering how Kaylie sailed through high school in a sea of happiness, with too many friends to count.

“You probably had tons of boyfriends,” Michelle said.

“Nope. They called me Danica Manica because I was flat as a board with no hips and awful hair.”