Booktree.ngIt-Starts-with-Us-Colleen-Hoover

I have to hold back my irritation. I pull his empty plate of food and his
glass toward me, and I stand up. “I didn’t know about you until today, Josh.
I swear. I would have been around if I had.”
He eyes me from his seat, studying me. Wondering if he can trust me.
“You know about me now.” He says that like it’s a challenge to do better. To
prove his low expectations of the world wrong.
I nudge my head toward the doors to the kitchen. “You’re right. Let’s
go.”
He doesn’t immediately get out of the booth. “Where to?”
“My house. I have a room for you as long as you stop cussing so much.”
He raises an eyebrow. “What are you, some kind of religious nutjob?”
I motion for him to stand up. “An eleven-year-old muttering cuss words
all the time seems desperate. It’s not cool until you’re at least fourteen.”
“I’m not eleven, I’m twelve.”
“Oh. She said you were eleven. Still. Too young to be cool.”
Josh stands up and starts to follow me through the kitchen.
I spin and face him as I push back through the doors. “And for future
reference, you spelled asshole wrong. There’s no w.”
He looks surprised. “I thought that looked funny after I wrote it.”
I put his dishes in the sink, but it’s almost three in the morning and I’m
not in the mood to wash them. I flip out the lights and have Josh lead the
way out the back door. When I’m locking it, he says, “Are you going to tell
Sutton where I am?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do yet,” I admit. I start walking down
the alley, and he rushes to catch up with me.
“I’m thinking of going to Chicago, anyway,” he says. “I probably won’t
stay more than one night at your place.”
I laugh at the idea that this kid thinks I’m going to allow him to run off
to another city now that I know he exists. What am I getting myself into? I
have a feeling my day-to-day responsibilities have just doubled. “Do we
have any other siblings I don’t know about?” I ask him.
“Just the twins, but they’re only eight.”
I stop in my tracks and look at him.
He grins. “I’m kidding. It’s just the two of us.”
I shake my head and grab the back of his hoodie, pulling it down over
his head. “You’re something.”