Read The After Girls for Free Online

child. Grace followed her sister just like she was one.
    “My mom’s not exactly a chatterer,” Jake said, once the two of them were safe in the back.
    “Oh, she’s your — ”
    “Yeah,” he said. “My dad went back to West Virginia yesterday. We’re hanging around for awhile. Helping Aunt Grace get things in order.”
    Ella just shrugged. She didn’t know what to say to that because order didn’t seem possible at this point. And she usually liked order.
    Jake tossed her a bag of large filters. “You want to start brewing those pots?” he asked, pointing to the row of them on the counter. “We open in less than an hour.”
    Ella nodded, but she didn’t move. Not yet.
    “It’s weird that I didn’t know about you,” she said. And it was. Astrid never talked about her family. Ella had never noticed it before, but now it was clear as day. Astrid had never even mentioned them. No stories of grandpas walking 10 miles in the snow, of uncles getting too drunk at Thanksgiving, of cousins making fun of her because she couldn’t whistle correctly. No tales, even, of her dad’s death. Of what it was like to lose him so young. Of how much she missed him.
    Every summer, Christmas, and Thanksgiving, Ella and her mom went up to New Jersey, and she always came back with pictures and inside jokes and scabs on her knees from their annual flag football game. She knew that Grace and Astrid went up to West Virginia sometimes. She knew that there’d been family there. But Astrid had never said all that much about them. And Ella had always been so busy regaling her with fun-family-time memories that she’d never really thought to ask.
    Jake was just looking at her, his eyebrows raised.
    “I just mean, I’ve known Astrid forever,” she said finally.
    “Knew,” he said under his breath.
    “What?”
    “Never mind
,
” he said, and his face sunk, like he almost felt bad about what he’d said. Like maybe he hadn’t wanted her to hear.
    “It’s just that it’s weird to hear you talk like that.”
    “Like what?” she asked. Even though she knew.
    “All in the present,” he said. “About her.”
    “It’s one phrase,” Ella said.
    “You said it before, too. That you’re her best friend.”
    “I am.”
    “You
were
.”
    Ella shook her head in disbelief. Indie-boy was taking this
way
too far.
    “Why are we even fighting about this? It’s so stupid.”
    “Sorry,” he said.
    She grabbed a large bag of coffee from underneath the counter. She walked around the other side and began setting up the pot. She scooped out each cup with force, some of the grounds escaping onto the floor.
    “Maybe,” she said, without looking up at him, the one who’d barely known Astrid, the one who she hadn’t even heard about until today. “It’s easier for you to talk completely accurately because you weren’t used to seeing her every single day.”
    Jake whipped his head up. “Just because we didn’t have slumber parties all the time doesn’t mean I didn’t know her.”
    Ella threw another scoop of coffee into the machine. She glared at Jake. How dare he?
    “Well clearly none of us really knew her,” she snapped. “Or we all wouldn’t be here, would we?”
    “I know you guys were close,” Jake said, taking a deep breath. “But it’s different. I’m the one who’s known her since she was born. I’m the one that was there for her when she lost her dad. I’m the one who understands Grace.”
    She shook her head as she flicked on the brew button. She knew Astrid and Grace just as well as he did. She’d probably spent more time with them than he had. Sure, he shared their blood, but had he known which TV shows were Astrid’s favorite? Had he known just the way her lips pursed together when she was trying to figure out a math problem? Did he know the way Grace shook her hips around the kitchen when she was making dinner?
    Jake didn’t say anything else. He just bowed his head and started shuffling bills in the