Ink Is Thicker Than Water by Amy Spalding Page B

Dad?”
    “She isn’t really that much younger than Mom. She was twenty-one when I was born. But she was a senior in college and already was accepted into grad school, so it wasn’t a time for her to have a baby.”
    “Right,” I say. “Is she still with your…him?”
    “They broke up before I was born, but they’re still friends. He lives in San Francisco now; he founded a digital startup. Camille—Camille’s her name—gave me his email address so I can talk to him. If I want.”
    “Are you going to?”
    “I think so. Yeah.”
    “Was it scary?”
    Sara’s silent for a few minutes but in that way where I can tell her brain is working, so I stay silent, too. “I guess so. A little.”
    “Did you—”
    “If it’s okay, I don’t know how much I want to talk about right now,” she says. “You know how sometimes, right after something happens, it’s like it’s so new you don’t have words for it yet?”
    I want to say no, but the truth is I’ve never spoken one real word about Oliver to anyone. And obviously that whole thing is different from what’s going on with Sara, but I could connect it enough not to push her. “Yeah.”
    Sara watches me for a moment before turning on the lamp on my nightstand. “Did Mom do your hair?”
    “Yup, another Melanie Stone slightly sketchy creation.” I wait to hear how I should start going to a professional salon, which perhaps is true.
    “It looks really good. I guess Mom’s got a backup plan if she ever gets sick of tattooing,” she says. “Well, I should probably get some sleep.”
    “I know it’s late, but…could you help me with geometry?”
    Sara sighs a big, dramatic sigh, which is how she always leads up to agreeing. “Of course. You should have said something earlier.”
    “Earlier you were getting ready for your life to change! I couldn’t bug you with stupid theorems.”
    “You can always bug me with theorems.”
    We get out my textbook, and Sara guides me through the assigned problems. If Barry, my geometry teacher, explained things so well, I wouldn’t need Sara. But there’s something I love about sitting up with my sister at midnight.
    Even if it’s for frigging math .
    After we get through the whole assignment, Sara switches my light back off and walks to the door. “I should get some rest.”
    “I’m really glad it went so well for you, Sara.”
    Even in the darkness I see her beam at me. “Thanks, Kell. Me, too.”

Chapter Six
    I spend the next day at school on full alert for any Kaitlyn changes. When she gets up at lunch to buy her usual salad, Chelsea and I watch her like hawks, if hawks were creepy little stalkers. But nothing’s out of the ordinary. If Lora and Josie are pulling her into their gravitational field, it’s not happening when I’m orbiting, or whatever correctly completes that scientific metaphor.
    “What are we doing this weekend?” Kaitlyn asks when I get to my car after school. Her Jetta’s still in the shop, so I’m still her chauffeur.
    “It’s only Wednesday,” I say. “Can we think about the weekend when the weekend is actually happening?”
    She laughs and messes with the radio station dial. “Don’t hit me. Can we have just one time in your car without a sixties invasion?”
    “Fine, fine.” I pull out of the parking lot and down the street toward Kaitlyn’s house. I start to tell her something about Oliver, since now that we’re texting, it feels like maybe something more is going to happen, but I just can’t get the words out of my mouth or the image of her talking excitedly with girls I’ve seen be so mean for no reason at all out of my head.
    And, anyway, I like having thoughts of Oliver basically all to myself. (I’ll pretend the only other person who knows something’s going on isn’t my mother , since that kind of ruins it being some kind of sexy secret.)
    “Your hair looks amazing, I meant to mention earlier,” Kaitlyn says. “Your mom?”
    “Yeah, and thanks. She did