CHAPTER 56

 

He’s a bad guy,” I tell Sophia.

“Whatever,” she says with a flick of her wrist. “I like the bad ones. I thought Sean Penn was dreamy in that movie Bad Boys. And, of course, I loooooove Johnny Depp. He was soooo cute on 21 Jump Street. But he’s sort of bad, too. Brooding. I like brooding.”

“Sophia?” I plead. “Schuyler isn’t bad that way. He’s a criminal. A thief!”

“Why? Because he stole my heart?”

We’re in the bedroom that Sophia shares with Sydney (when she isn’t at college) and Victoria.

“No,” I tell her. “Because he stole money from the booth where I work.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“Rad! Now he can take me someplace nice instead of that greasy cheese-fries place on the boardwalk.”

“Sophia?” I’m tugging at my hair. “Are you even listening to what I’m saying?”

That’s when Victoria waltzes into the room.

“What are you two conversing about so fervently?” she says, because she always tries to find the most complicated way to say anything. She’s worse than Shakespeare that way.

“Jacky says Schuyler’s no good,” says Sophia. “She’s dissing him to the max!”

“Because he’s a thief,” I say, my voice filled with exasperation. “He tried to shoplift taffy, too.”

Victoria gasps. “From my store?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I can’t say as how I blame him. We do make the best on the boardwalk.…”

“You guys?”

Now I’m seriously considering yanking out all of my hair. My sisters just won’t listen to me. Fortunately, that’s when Dad sticks his head in the door. Probably because it’s after midnight and we’re talking way too loud.