The Big Sister - Part One by Lexie Ray

true.”
     
    Jennet smiled. “When things sound really good, I never try to question them,” she said. “Seriously. Let me help you. I like you. I like your brother. I’m sorry about everything you’ve been through. If you’ll excuse my French —” at this point, she covered the ear that Luke wasn’t pressing up against her costume “— it fucking sucks, but now let me give you a chance to make it all better.”
     
    I swallowed hard and held out my hand. “I’m Faith.”
     
    “Jennet,” she said, shaking my hand in a firm grip. She’d painted her fingernails each a different color of the rainbow, much like a little girl who had just discovered her mother’s stash of bright polish. Maybe that was why Luke had taken a shine to her so quickly. Jennet was friendly and seemed straightforward — much the way a very earnest child came across. Her guileless nature inspired total honesty in me at a time when I didn’t trust a single person.
     
    “You’ve already met Luke, there,” I said, pointing at my brother.
     
    “I sure have,” Jennet said, ruffling his hair fondly. “You’ve spent your last night in that crappy hotel. Tonight, you’re coming home with me.”
     
    And it really had been as simple as that. Jennet’s apartment was furnished with the odds and ends that tenants brought upon moving in and left behind when moving out, not wanting to heave the hefty pieces back down all those flights of stairs. Luke and I shared a room until Jennet’s current roommate moved out. Then, we each had a space of our own, something neither of us was used to. More often than not, I’d wake up with Luke snoozing in my own bed, hogging the covers and pillows.
     
    But time healed all — or sent all on its path to healing, anyway — and soon Luke was smiling, drawn a bit out of his taciturn shell, and I was learning the ropes at the club, coming home with shiny burns on my hands and legs from the pole.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    “You know what? Let’s do something fun tomorrow.” I smiled and hugged myself with my arms. I still had to count the wad of money Marcus had given me, but I was pretty sure there was enough there to have a special celebration.
     
    “What do you have in mind?” Jennet asked. “I think there might be some kind of program at the library. Might be too young for Luke, though.”
     
    “No, I mean something really fun,” I said. “I want to splurge on all of us.”
     
    “But what about tuition?” Jennet had been sweating Luke’s private school almost as much as I had. We knew how important it was to get him the individualized attention — and how acutely public school had failed him.
     
    I couldn’t hide my grin. “Tuition is taken care of?”
     
    “What?” Jennet scratched her head, making the rat’s nest of snarls there even worse in her puzzlement. “I thought we were still a ways off.”
     
    “Not anymore, we’re not,” I said. “Tonight was …” Tonight was a lot of things. But for the first time, I nodded to myself and made my decision about the entire affair. “Tonight was amazing.”
     
    “You don’t have to work or anything?” Jennet asked. “I know you’ve been putting in a lot of hours.”
     
    “Well, it’s finally paid off,” I said, taking the fat wad of bills from my purse and watching Jennet’s mouth form into a perfect “o.”
     
    “That’s a lot of cash,” she said. “Sorry for stating the obvious.”
     
    “We don’t ask too many questions when really good things happen, remember?” I reminded her, waving the bills around. “And it’s not worth it if we don’t get to celebrate the good things every once in a while.”
     
    “I think it’s supposed to cool down a little tomorrow,” Jennet said. “What if we did a picnic at the zoo?”
     
    I brightened. The zoo was supposed to be incredible, but I hadn’t had a chance to take Luke yet. I hadn’t had the time — or the money. All that was about to change, thanks to