Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 82163 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82163 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“I’m fine. I got sick because I didn’t eat breakfast.” I glare at her.
“Why are you giving me that look?” she asks. “I’m not the one who slept until five minutes before we had to leave.”
“I told you yesterday to wake me at eight.” I point my fork at her, then stab two pieces of pasta.
“Do you think I was up at eight?” She laughs. “I got home at four o’clock.”
“I’m actually surprised she’s even here.” Erika chimes in. “When we left her at the bar, she was yelling tequila!”
“You left me alone at the bar.” Gabriella shakes her head. “What happened to leave no one behind?”
“You are so dramatic,” Alex declares. “We were there the whole time.” She shakes her head. “Who do you think brought you home?”
“Wait.” She holds her fork up. “That was you guys?”
“Who did you think it was?” Alex shrieks.
“Um,” Gabriella says, “I thought it was Chase and Julia.”
“Why the hell would you think it was Chase and Julia?” Alex asks.
“Well, for one, you guys stopped at McDonald’s for me,” Gabriella states. “Dylan is never that nice.”
“Yes, I am.” I turn and see Dylan coming to the table with his plate in his hand. Alex just laughs at him, and then when he turns to glare at her, she just rolls her lips.
“I’m sure it had nothing to do with Gabriella saying that Chase was nicer than you,” Alex points out as Dylan grabs a chair from the other table and brings it over to ours while Alex moves over to give him a place for him to sit.
“It did not,” Dylan denies, sitting down and grabbing a french fry from Alex’s plate.
“I think what she said was, ‘You suck. Why can’t you be more like Chase?’” Alex reminds him, and he just glares at her.
“Oh, I remember that now,” Gabriella says, making us laugh. “I think I even chanted it.”
“You did,” Alex confirms when she picks up her own bottle of water. “Sucky Stone was what you were saying.”
“Then I just said, ‘You suck, Stone,’” Gabriella recalls as I see Chase start coming over, followed by Xavier and Michael behind him.
“So basically, you bullied him into going to McDonald’s for you?” Julia clarifies.
“This is also an answer to why I found a trail of fries from the driveway into the house,” I observe as I cut my own piece of chicken, making everyone laugh. “So the moral of the story is that Dylan isn’t very nice until you bully him.” I look at Dylan, who looks like he’s going to flip me the bird. “And Chase is still the nicest cousin ever.”
“I have no idea what we’re talking about,” Chase joins in, grabbing a chair and putting it next to Julia, “but I agree with it.”
“Don’t you have some yoga class to go to?” Dylan leans back in his chair.
“He does Pilates,” Michael corrects him as he too tries to squeeze into the table.
“Laugh all you want,” Chase says, “but when I can go four hours in bed, I’m the one who is laughing.”
“That is so not true,” Julia retorts. “I’m also laughing.” Chase smirks at her, leaning in and kissing her neck.
“Can you guys be more gross?” Jillian whines from beside her as she pretends to vomit.
I grab another piece of pasta as I listen to the talk going on around the table when I hear Xavier call over Tristan.
I swallow down hard when I see him walking over to our table. “There are about fifteen tables in the yard. Why do we always gather around one?” Erika says, and I want to give her a high five.
“Why don’t we just grab another table and connect it?” Michael suggests, getting up.
“Or,” Alex says, “women can stay at one table and men sit at another.”
“But then who will steal all my food?” Dylan asks, and she smiles at him sweetly before raising her hand and flipping him the bird. Out of everyone’s relationship, the one I am always envious of is Dylan and Alex’s. They are the best of friends, and they know exactly how to push each other, but then you also know no one loves each other more than they do.
Michael and Dylan get up while Chase, Vivienne, Erika, and Jillian move their chairs so we can put the two tables together. I breathe a sigh of relief when Chase sits beside me so I know Tristan has to sit on the other side of the table. When he sits down right in front of me, I suddenly wish I was sitting at the other end.
“Where did your clothes end up?” Michael asks Tristan, and I look down at my plate instead of at him. I cut a piece of chicken even though I know my stomach is going wishy-washy.
“Your aunt said she’s going to have them cleaned,” Tristan replies, “I told her to throw them away.”