Chapter 2

When I got home, Mom, Dad and Bella were all in the living room.

A pile of glossy college brochures covered the coffee table. Palm trees. Blue water. Students laughing on a beach.

Bella spotted me and jumped off the couch. "Claire! Did Mason tell you? I'm going to San Diego too! He picked the school and everything. It's literally right across the street from yours."

She hooked her arm through mine and squeezed. "We get to see each other every single day. Just like now."

Eleven months younger, same grade, same everything. Whatever I had, Bella wanted. And sooner or later, she always got it.

I pulled my arm free. "Why do you have to go wherever I go?"

"Because you guys will both be there." She blinked at me like the answer was obvious. "If I went somewhere by myself, Mom and Dad would worry about me all the time."

Mom frowned at me over her reading glasses. "What's with the attitude? Your sister wants to be near you, and now that's a problem?"

I almost laughed. "Near me? Or near someone who'll clean up after her?"

Dad set his beer down hard enough to slosh it. "You're the oldest, Claire. Looking out for her is your job."

"We've given you everything you ever wanted," he went on. "We missed one birthday. One. Because Bella wanted to go to Cedar Point. And you're still holding that over our heads?"

Bella's bottom lip started to wobble. "If Claire doesn't want me there, I won't go. It's fine. I just don't want her to hate me."

Mom pulled her into a hug right away. "Don't be silly, honey. You didn't do anything wrong."

Then she glared at me over Bella's head. "She finally got into a good school. Did you really have to make her cry tonight of all nights?"

Unbelievable.

It had always been like this. Bella took whatever was mine, and Mom and Dad cleaned up after her. I'd thought Mason was the one thing in my life that was only mine. Turned out he couldn't say no to her either.

I stood there for a long moment and didn't say anything.

I was exhausted. And I already knew how this fight would end. It always ended with me shutting up.

"I never said she couldn't go."

Bella lifted her head. The rims of her eyes were pink. "So you're not mad?"

"I'm not mad."

Wherever she wanted to go, it wasn't my problem anymore.

The next morning, I started getting ready to leave.

My test scores and application forms were already done. All I had left was the visa paperwork and a couple of appointments. The program would take care of everything else.

I found Mom at the kitchen island, scrolling through a dorm shopping list for Bella. Mini fridge. Mattress topper. A pink shower caddy.

"My school picked me for a summer program," I said. "I'll be gone for a while."

She didn't even look up.

"Does it cost anything?"

"No."

"Then go." She tapped her screen. "Do you think Bella needs a twin XL or a full?"