The Control of Surrender

Chapter Three

A knock on my old bedroom door drew my attention away from my laptop. Concentration broken, I frowned and grumbled as I minimized the browser window, sat back in the desk chair and called out, "Come in!"

Jenny opened the door and stepped in, a worried frown on her face. She quietly closed the door and walked over to my bed, where she sat gingerly on the edge. I watched while she fidgeted for several minutes, occasionally running her hand over her wrist. The silence stretched between us until, finally, it got to be too much for me.

"Okay, what's wrong?" I demanded. "You're never this quiet."

She rubbed her hands along her thighs, her palms scraping over the jeans she wore and sighed. "Did you find the arcade?" she asked, glancing at me.

"Yeah, no thanks to you." I swiveled around in the chair to face her more fully. "I appreciate how you were here to greet me, and answer any questions," I said, sarcasm practically dripping from my words.

She ran a hand through her hair and blew out a breath. "I'm sorry, Nat. Really." She paused and bit her lip. "Something came up with Oliver."

My forehead wrinkled at her tone. "What came up?" I asked, curious.

She stiffened. "Not anything important," was her quick response, as she made a dismissive gesture.

My head cocked to the side as I considered her words, and I watched while she rubbed her palms on her jeans again. My lips pursed, and my nails tapped against the desktop, as I pondered what exactly was going on. Because it didn't take a genius to figure out my little sister was hiding something.

"You know," I mused, pushing off to spin slowly back around to face my laptop. "I have better things to do than listen to you lie to my face." I moved my finger over the trackpad and brought the screen back to life because it had darkened. "When you're ready to be honest with me, you know where I am," I told her, my tone indicating I wasn't putting up with her vague responses.

I heard her sigh deeply, then shift around on the bed. I kept my eyes glued to the screen in front of me, not even reading what was on the displayed document. My will was strong, and I wasn't backing down. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few minutes, Jenny swore softly under her breath.

"You kiss Mom with that mouth?" I asked, not looking away from the screen.

She snorted. "Like you're any better."

"I never claimed otherwise," I stated proudly. "So," I continued, while pulling up my email, "you done hiding shit?"

"Yeah," she muttered. I turned back around and came face-to-face with her glare. "You weren't fooling anyone, by the way. Just thought you should know."

I looked at her in confusion. "Huh?"

"Your 'Oh, so busy' routine there," she said, pointing to the screen. "You were just waiting for me to crack. You weren't actually working."

I grinned. "It worked, didn't it? How'd you know?"

"Because you never so much as scrolled down the page. It was obvious you weren't reading a damn word on there."

I hummed in agreement. "Note to self: scroll occasionally next time. Anyway," I said while sitting back and crossing my arms, "what's going on with Oliver? I take it he's the boyfriend Mom was telling me about?"

She nodded, then dropped her eyes to her lap. I watched as she stared at her palms before suddenly clenching them, making fists. "Yeah, and he's probably one of the sweetest guys you'll ever meet." She sniffled and muttered, "Usually."