They Made My Life A Joke For 18 Years, I Stopped Laughing Chapter 06

They Made My Life A Joke For 18 Years, I Stopped Laughing Chapter 06

Sienna and Ethan showed up not long after.

They’d just eaten barbecue; matching smears of sauce still clung to the corners of their mouths.

“Gavin, don’t worry.”

“I know Willa. She just can’t take a joke. She thinks we embarrassed her yesterday, so now she’s trying to get back at us.”

Sienna licked the sauce from the corner of her mouth and gave Gavin a sweet smile.

Ethan frowned, irritation sharpening his features.

“We made her run around twice. So what? Does she really have to make it this big a deal? And now

she’s freaking blocked me.”

Sienna nodded.

“Me too.”

Gavin pulled out his phone and tried my number.

The result was exactly what he’d expected.

“The person you’re trying to reach is unavailable…”

He gave a humorless laugh.

One brow arched.

“Real mature, Willa Sutton.”

“Just wait until I find you. I swear I’m going to…”

The threat died in his throat when he opened an email that had arrived a few minutes earlier.

It was from Owen Parker, an old classmate in Boston he hadn’t spoken to in years.

[Your sister’s seriously impressive. Eastbridge barely ever gives full rides to undergrads.]

A screenshot of Eastbridge University’s Merit Scholars announcement was attached.

Gavin froze.

“What’s wrong, Gavin?”

Ethan leaned over, took one look at the screen, and fell silent.

“What is it? Why do you both look like that?”

Sienna pushed in, snatched Gavin’s phone from his hand, and started reading the email out loud.

“Your sister is seriously impressive…”

Her eyes widened as she read on.

She pinched and zoomed the screenshot over and over, searching for any sign it had been edited.

Nothing.

The image was clean. No edits. No signs of tampering.

“This… this can’t be real.”

“Willa isn’t even that good at school. She only got a 1550 on the SAT. How did she get a full ride to

Eastbridge?”

She looked close to tears.

“Wait. Wait, that’s it.”

“Remember the ‘just kidding’ message she sent yesterday? This has to be what she meant.”

“She faked the email and the screenshot. Wow. Little Willa finally learned how to prank us back.”

This time, neither Gavin nor Ethan played along.

Ethan put a hand on her shoulder and sighed.

“Willa grew up.”

Those three words sent a chill down Gavin’s back.

Grown up?

Did that mean she wouldn’t follow him around anymore?

No.

He couldn’t accept that.

He immediately found Owen’s contact information.

“Can you… get Willa to meet with me?”

“She doesn’t want to see me right now.”

Owen refused without hesitation.

“Sorry. I had no idea things were like this in your family.”

“I’m not going to pressure a girl who’s clearly asking for space.”

Then Owen blocked him.

Gavin stared at the red failed-message icon, his chest pulling tight.

For the first time, he started turning the last two days over in his mind.

What exactly had he done wrong?

Was this really all over one stupid little joke?

Or because he hadn’t shown up for her move-in?

“I’m booking a flight to Boston right now. There’s still time to fix this.”

He booked the flight on the spot.

When Ethan saw what he was doing, he joined the search for me too.

Only Sienna was still stuck on one thing: I’d gotten into Eastbridge.

Since we were kids, she’d never been able to stand it when I outdid her.

Once, when we were kids, I scored a 98 on a test and she got an 89.

The next day, she blacked out my entire test with marker. She called it a joke.

In high school, a boy wrote me my first love letter.

Sienna immediately put on a cute dress and asked him to meet her so she could confront him. Somehow, the two of them ended up dating.

She called that a joke too.

For eighteen years, I’d been the target of jokes like those more times than I could count.

This time, though, I’d made one of my own.

So why couldn’t they take it?