Matt couldn’t imagine what his mother and stepmother would be talking about if it weren’t some misadventure of Julia’s. And he could not picture his little sister hanging out at his mother’s house. So, like most men of his age, he simply stopped trying.
“Yup.”
“I mean not normal at all. Like super strange,” Julia repeated as if to convey that Matthew was not responding adequately. “It’s like Marilyn having tea with Jackie or something.”
It annoyed Matt that his sister, who even he could admit was super bright, now seemed only capable of making references that involved celebrities. And her excessive use of the word “like” had started to give him a headache. She sounded like a moron.
“Yes, it is, like, crazy, psycho, insanely weird. Okay, I’m going to go.”
“But don’t you think it’s …”
“I have to run, Mouse, I have class.”
“Don’t call me … Matt, it’s Saturday. What class do you have on Saturday?”
“It’s called introduction to I no longer care about this conversation.”
“Oh ha ha. Screw you.”
“Screw you,” Matt replied, hoping to use it as his goodbye, but like the Energizer bunny, she just kept banging that drum.
“But it’s weird, right?”
“Yes, like I said, really weird.”
“Don’t you want to know why she’s here?”
“Are you going to go and ask?”
“Oh yeah, right, I’ll just waltz in there and be like, ‘what are you doing here?’”
“Well, get Ben to find out. She likes him.”
“He’s not here.”
“Well then, wait till after and ask Mom.”
“Seriously, Matt, I am going to go ask the mom about the stepmom. You are super dim sometimes.”
“Says the straight-A student talking like reality TV star.”
“Why are you so … so, like, you don’t even care about the drama going on downstairs? That is just like you Matt, so selfish. Just because you are away now, it’s like you think don’t even have to care about stuff any more. I don’t know why you think it’s so cool to be so, like, emotionally distant.” Well, at least she still knew some big words.
“Okay, I have honestly not been paying attention to anything you’ve said in the last minute or so, and there is nothing that I can do about this situation, which is maybe none of our business, so and I’m going to hang up now. I know, screw me.”
“No wait … how can you say it’s none … oh never mind, I think I hear Ben. Maybe he’ll be of some use. Okay, I’m going to talk to him about it. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Awesome.”
“You’re an ass.”
“Bye.”
Matt dropped the receiver and slumped back into his chair, exhausted. A phone call with his sister these days was like having a conversation with a chipmunk. And she really was getting dumber-sounding every time he talked to her.
“Who was that?” Matt’s roommate called from the living room, without the slightest pretense that he hadn’t been listening to the whole conversation. Privacy wasn’t really an expectation one could hold in an apartment the size of a shoebox. But Matt had wanted to study on the west coast, so a shoebox was all he could afford. “Sounds serious.”
“Nah, that’s just the way we talk. She’s all tweaked out because my stepmom’s over at my mom’s place.” Matt would not normally have bothered to respond to Kevin’s question, but he found himself wandering over to the door. As Julia had pointed out, ad nauseum, it was pretty weird.
“Oh damn, she in trouble?”
“No. I don’t think so. She doesn’t know. It’s just a little odd since the two of them are not really friendly … not even civil. The whole old wife, new wife thing, you know how it is.”
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
