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are you doing? You’re supposed to take out the snipers while I cover the ground area,” Lance yells while Derrick moves in front of the TV with a bag of chips and a Coke in his hand. “Move it, Bro! We can’t see!”
    “I’m getting there.” Derrick plops down next to me. The smell of barbeque lingers in the bag making my stomach grumble. He elbows me in the side and whispers, “So is Liv going to call me soon?”
    “Who’s Liv?” Lance asks.
    Shooting Derrick a glare, I sigh. “She’s…no one.”
    “Bullshit! She’s apparently this super hot chick that is living with Cabs here.”
    Dead! So dead! I knew better than to bring Derrick over yesterday. Lance sets his controller down on the coffee table. “Wait, so your uncle’s girlfriend has a hot daughter and you failed to mention this to any of us why? And why did Big Mouth get to hang out with her first? We’ve been bros since first grade.”
    I rise from the couch. “It’s not like that. Erin invited him in for dinner ‘cause she’s overly friendly like that. And the girl is hot but a total nightmare. She’s…bitchy. She’s super smart, and it’s annoying because she throws it in your face.”
    Lance runs a hand through his red hair and laughs. “Sounds like you’ve got yourself a true challenge, Morgan. Most girls fall for your charms, but this one sounds like she’s not going to go down so easily.”
    Derrick chimes in, “I think she’s into this gun show right over here.”
    Lance and I both turn our heads in the direction of Derrick, who’s flexing his right arm. I shake my head and say, “You wish. She’s not into you.”
    Derrick drops his arm, digs through the chip bag, and shrugs. “Her loss then.”
    “You going to try and hit it?” Lance asks.
    God no! I’m never going to tap that, and apparently neither is anyone else until she’s married to them. Which isn’t a bad thing. Most of the girls would have already given it up, especially after two years of dating. I simply shake my head and pull out my cell. “I’ve got to help out around the house so I gotta get back. See you guys at Heather’s party?”
    “We’ll come pick you up,” Lance calls out, as I’m halfway up the steps.
    “Don’t bother. Meet you there.”

Chapter 9
     
    Skylar
     
    Opening the door to Brian’s spare room, I expect it to be vacant. Instead, I find my mother bent over one of my boxes near the bed. Her dark blond curls are pulled back into a ponytail, while the muscles in her biceps flex. She lifts a box with a grunt, and grumbles, “Child should have had at least one of these unpacked.”
    “Mom! What are you doing?”
    She screams and lets go of the box at the same time. “Liv! You scared me half to death! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
    I narrow my eyes while looking about the room. “Oh please, you’re super healthy. I can’t believe you’d go behind my back and unpack my stuff. What part of ‘I don’t want to be here’ did you not understand?”
    She glares at me with her hands settling on her hips. “And I told you this is our new home. I’m sorry it doesn’t suit you. I’m sorry you don’t understand but eventually, I hope you will.”
    “Yeah, well…maybe I want to move in with Dad.” I don’t mean it. Moving in with my dad is always a sore spot with my mother and me and there’s a good reason for that.
    When I was seven, Dad brought a little girl home with him. She was six, and her name was Lidia. Now, seven-year-old me thought Lidia was the sister my mom kept telling me the stork might bring someday. Turns out she was my little sister, but she definitely wasn’t the one my mom was musing about. And she wasn’t welcomed either. That’s the same night my parents yelled so much I hid in my closet and words like “affair,” “betrayal,” and “bastard” were thrown around. I didn’t know much of what was going, but I did know that my life was never going to be the same.
    A frown forms on