He skidded to a stop in front of her. The house had hardwood floors and his favorite thing when their parents were out was to skate on the floor in his socks. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She forced a smile. Then she ripped off the paper with the address and tucked it in the pocket of her jeans. "I was just trying to remember if we have any popcorn in the house."
He rolled his eyes. "Seriously?"
"Oh, come on, Griff."
His eyes went wide. "What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing. I'm just--nothing." She forced a smile. "If we're not having popcorn with the movie, then what are we having?"
"Well, not with the movie, but the last time Mom and Dad went out, we talked about doing marshmallows over the fire pit and making s'mores."
"Yeah, but not tonight." All she wanted was to watch one of his stupid action movies so that she could either stare mindlessly at the screen or fall asleep. Either way it would take her mind off the fact that she was trapped in this house, away from Wyatt, and that she was never in her whole life going to get to do anything she really wanted to do.
"What's wrong with tonight?" Griffin demanded.
"Oh, come on," she snapped. "I said no. Give it a rest. Now, do you want popcorn or not?"
"Jeez. What bug crawled up your butt?"
She aimed her most fierce scowl at him, and he held up his hands in surrender.
"Sorry! But I mean, honestly, Kels. You never want to do anything fun."
And that, she thought, was the absolute last straw. She always wanted to do something fun. She was just never allowed to.
"You know what? You watch whatever you want, okay? I'm gonna go out for a little bit."
"You're leaving me alone?"
"For crying out loud, Griffin. You don't need a babysitter. You're just a few months away from thirteen. But Mom and Dad think you're a baby, and they don't want me to go out."
"I'm not a baby."
"That's what I'm saying. And I'm going out. You won't tell?"
"What about the movie? And the s'mores?"
"You can watch a movie without me. And we'll do the marshmallow and fire pit thing some other time. We don't have any chocolate or graham crackers anyway, so s'mores weren't really on the agenda."
"When?"
"When what?"
"When is some other time?"
"Some. Other. Time."
He stared her down. "I'm going to tell Mom and Dad."
"You are not."
He deflated, all his bluster sliding out of him. "I'm not. You know I'd never tattle. But I really wanted to do the marshmallow thing."
"How about I buy some chocolate and graham crackers tomorrow? We'll keep them in the pantry for the next time Mom and Dad go out."
"Who knows when that will be," he said grumpily.