Suffocate Read Free Page B

sister.
    “Today.” She gawks at me from holding the front door open.
    “Oh no.” I shake my head at her. “Do not start. You had me waiting for almost twelve minutes.”
    “It’s impressive you started bitching after six. Normally you’re beating down my door by four.”
    I don’t reply.
    I may....or may not have been debating on whether or not to send Stuart a congrats text for the seventh time today. Hey, hey, again with the judging. None of that here.
    The two of us get into my car and head towards the event being held across town closer to his apartment. During the ride she focuses on unnecessary touch ups to her make up giving me one giant red flag something big is brewing and she’s trying not to share it.
    I knit when I’m stressed. She turns her life into a paint by numbers with makeup instead of markers.
    “Wanna talk about it?”
    Removing an invisible smudge from next to her lips she replies, “Do you?” My lips press together and she hums, “That’s what I thought.”
    In an attempt to divert the conversation I ask, “How’s work?”
    “A work question?” She scoffs flipping the mirror up. “You really don’t wanna talk about Stuart.”
    “There’s nothing to talk about,” I lie turning my blinker on.
    “Clearly,” she mumbles.
    I’m not that transparent am I?
    “Work is work.” She shrugs resting her head against the headrest. “I actually got offered to do make up for a horror movie that’s gonna start filming this summer.”
    “Really?”
    “Try to sound a little less impressed that your sister can actually make a career out of what you always assumed was a hobby.”
    “Erin—”
    “Don’t even.” She raises a hand at me. “I know how much you hate what I do.”
    It’s not that I hate what she does. I just wanted her to have a job that could take care of her in the long run. One that required a degree. One that she would’ve taken if our parents wouldn’t have died. She always assumes that I’m just the asshole big brother who looks down his nose at her, but I’m just trying to take care of her. I’m just trying to fulfill a promise I made to our parents. To myself. Don’t ask about it right now.
    “I don’t hate what you do sis.”
    “So all the ‘get a real job’ speeches were just vocal warm ups?”
    Pulling up behind a red jeep at the stoplight, I turn sharply to snap, “Goddamn it Erin! I just wanted to make sure you had a way to take care of yourself!”
    “You just wanted to control me!” She points a harsh finger my direction. “You are a control freak!”
    Don’t nod your head. Don’t do that.
    “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t end up a 45 year old bitter woman still working the perfume counter at the local mall because she never got her shit together!”
    “Not everyone rolled out of bed and knew what they wanted to be when they got older Luke! Some people have to find themselves!”
    “At the mall? What, are we trapped in the movie Clueless?” my sarcastic response is followed by the car behind me honking.
    Making a sharp left I head towards the highway to merge on. The remaining car ride towards the venue is silent.
    This is the problem with fighting with her. Neither of us feels the need to back down or apologize. It’s a Hart thing. My parents didn’t fight often, but when they did, believe me, it was everyone locked and loaded just like this.
    When I finally pull into the parking garage I’m surprised to see our best friends, and ex roommates, getting out of the car beside us. Before I kill the engine Erin is out of the car slamming the door behind her.
    On a deep sigh, I turn the car off, and get out just in time to hear her say, “Careful, the stick up his ass is wedged tighter than normal.”
    “Thanks.” I sarcastically smirk. Kellar chuckles under his breath while helping Maxx, his pregnant wife, out of his car. “It’s not funny.”
    “It’s a little funny,” Dean, their adopted teen son, adds to the