Page 43 of Scars Like Wings
“Theceiling?! Are you serious?! How?!”
“Honestly, we will never know.”
Glancing at the sleeping partygoers, I didn’t recognize any of their faces. I whispered to not wake anyone. “Where are your cousins?”
Quinn shrugged, checking her phone. “It’s honestly anyone’s guess. They have a tendency to never end up in the same place twice. But Nat is usually always the first one up no matter when she lays down from whatever she got into the night before. I trained her long ago to be like my little assistant.”
As if on cue, one of the upstairs doors opened. Nat yawned and leaned against the railing, wearing a sports bra and matching leggings, her phone in hand. Her face was cleared of makeup. Her purple hair was pulled back into a messy bun with her bangs nicely framing her face. Despite the exhaustion in her eyes, she resembled a fitness influencer.
“Rise and shine, little bitch,” Quinn sang.
Nat flipped her off with a grimace at Quinn’s cheery attitude. I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“It’s time to get this show on the road, Stass. Where is everyone?”
Nat rolled her eyes with all the attitude expected from someone who had gotten maybe three hours of sleep, but she started counting off on her fingers as she listed. “Cole and Simone are in the basement, awake and getting ready to come up, at last text I got. Cody is in his room. I knocked, and he grumbled something. But let’s be honest, he’s not actually awake. And Cooper is?—”
Another door opened and closed near Natassa. Cooper emerged, clean and well rested. That hard edge remained in his eyes that made me not want to stare too long.What was with this guy?
“Well, speak of the devil,” Nat said.
“Good morning there, starshine,” Quinn greeted.
He made a grimace similar to Nat’s. Their family resemblance was clear. “What the fuck?”
“You look refreshed, like you are the only one who didn’t get into trouble last night,” Quinn noted.
Cooper crossed his arms. “Maybe I’m just better at doing it.”
“Or you didn’t do anything at all because you have zero game,” Nat quipped.
He rolled his eyes. “Not everyone is a Times Square billboard for who they fucked.”
“At least, I can say I have a story to tell.”
“Can we focus?” Quinn said, as I was enjoying their banter. I always found sibling spats to be hilarious. It reminded me of me and Uncle Everett or Aunt Max and Pops when they were alive. “Can someone go and wake Cody?”
“I’ll go do it. I bet itmurderedNat to have to wake up everyone,” Cooper said.
Nat nodded. “Ihatewaking people up and being awoken. It’s why I’m a morning person who gets up before everyone else.”
“You really look it there, princess.”
“Fuck off. I’m about to domanual labor. You think I’m going to do it with a full face on? You are a butch, but you aren’tthatcrazy. I’ll get dressed after we are done with this shit, if that’s alright with you,boss?” Nat said, flicking Quinn off again before making her way downstairs.
Quinn chuckled. As Nat approached, she shook her head with her arms crossed. The ends of her ponytail swayed along her shoulders. “She issoannoying. You have no idea just yet.”
“You two behave like sisters more than cousins,” I remarked.
“Well,” Nat said, “in a house with three other boys, you kind of have to band together if you want to have any trace of happiness and peace. So, even though she’s five years older than me, we grew up close. Quinn drives me fucking crazy, and she can be such adadsometimes. But she’s also my best friend, and I would literally kill those three dingbats upstairs for her.”
Before I could fully digest this information, Quinn put her hands over her heart and joked, “Oh, and they say that her heart grew three sizes that day. Who knew the brat was capable of human feeling? And toward me? I’m touched.”
“You have one more comment before I punch you until you die.” Nat gave Quinn a glare made of swords.
Quinn just laughed. “You can certainly try, runt.”
Nat made a fist and raised it. Before she could act on her promise, the elevator dinged open to reveal a sleepy Simone and disheveled Cole hand-in-hand. Cole wore gray sweatpants, and Simone wore a dark green Westside High Varsity Swim Team shirt and boxers—very obviously, Cole’s clothes. Her face was clear of makeup, and her hair was down and her afro curls instead of her beach waves.