Read The Distance from A to Z for Free Online Page B

class. What are you up to?”
    Alice shimmies across the bed, and it’s only then that I realize she’s in pajamas.
    â€œDidn’t you go to class?”
    She scrunches her nose and her shoulders rise and drop. “I might have gotten back into pajamas after class?”
    Seriously, it’s like looking in the mirror.
    â€œCome on, let’s get outside. I was going to go for a run since it seems like a gorgeous day.”
    â€œI don’t run,” she says without moving. As though this might be the line in the sand.
    â€œWell, do you walk?”
    We’re just finishing up a leisurely stroll around the campus when my phone rings. Well, not so much rings as sings. Actually, sings is too kind for what it does. It screeches and bellows and squeals through a very annoying version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
    â€œWhat the—” Alice’s face is horrified, and her gaze darts around, as though she’s trying to find the drunk guys who are butchering the song.
    Lucky for me, I know they are far from here right now. “I can’t effing believe you changed my ringtone again,” I growl into the phone.
    â€œAbby! How’s life in New Hampshire cow town?” My brothers are laughing hysterically and in the background there’s the sound of a batter being called up. Must not be the Cubs, because otherwise they wouldn’t interrupt a game.
    â€œNumber sixty-four, Kelsey Ryan,” I hear over the loudspeaker.
    The Nationals. They must have stopped for a game. God, how I hate the fact that I know this stuff. It only proves that it is possible to learn by osmosis. I should just play French recordings during every waking hour and then maybe—
    â€œâ€”up four nothing and Santos isn’t up yet,” Si updates me.
    â€œShut up,” I hear Jed yell. “You’re going to jinx it.”
    â€œYou can’t jinx a team that doesn’t miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” I mutter, though I’m quite sure now they’re bickering with each other, and Si doesn’t even remember he’s on the phone with me.
    â€œSi!” I shout as loud as I can, startling passersby. “I’m hanging up! Hope the Cubs continue hitting well! Hope Santos homers!”
    â€œShit, Abby! What the hell? You know better than to jinx them like that!” Now I can hear them both yelling at me through the phone, and I do what any good younger sister would do. I hang up.
    â€œYour brothers?” Alice guesses as I make a face at the phone and slide it in my bag.
    â€œYup. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. Each one more addicted to baseball than the other.”
    â€œAnd yet you’re grinning like an idiot.” Alice laughs, and I turn my sour face on her.
    It’s true. Talking to my brothers usually doesn’t put me in a good mood. Maybe it’s the distance. Or maybe because they are so completely, unabashedly themselves.
    â€œThey’re good guys.”
    â€œHow old?”
    â€œI think twenty-five and twenty-eight? I have a hard time remembering, especially since they act like they’re fourteen.”
    There’s a comfortable silence while I find us a cart selling iced coffees.
    â€œIt’s sweet. The way you are with them,” Alice adds.
    I shrug. “Just before my mom got pregnant with me, she and my dad bought a small sports paraphernalia store. So a lot of their time gets sucked in to trying to make it successful. Si and Jed were really the ones who took care of me. I mean, not in a bad way, but they were home to make dinner, even if it was corn dogs and French fries. They read me stories, helped me with my homework, took me to movies. I mean, when it wasn’t baseball season.”
    â€œWhat happened when it was baseball season?”
    â€œWell, it was basically all the same things, except I tagged along with them to practices. And Si would help me with homework when he