Read Online I Was Here All Along by Penny Blake - Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t slowing him down when we first started running together, which I totally was.
     
    “I’m not sure…what I’m going to do yet…but I’m not finished with Rio…not by a long shot…Even if he doesn’t want…to get up in this…I’m at least… going to have some fun with him.”
     
    “Hey, speaking of getting up in that, are you hanging out with April again tonight?  Wait, that came out weird. “
     
    I laugh, but in the back of my mind, I try to figure out what he’s talking about.  “Why?” I ask.
     
    “You guys hung out the last two nights so I was hoping to see my girlfriend tonight, if you know what I’m saying.”
     
    “I’ll see what I can do,” I say noncommittally.
     
    As we run, my mind is churning a hundred miles an hour.  The truth is, I haven’t hung out with April the past two nights, but I have a pretty good idea what she’s been up to.
     
    There’s something I haven’t mentioned about my sister yet, and even now, it hurts me to say it because it doesn’t reflect well on her, and I don’t want anyone to hold it against her because April has so many other incredible qualities. 
     
    But here it is, the honest to God truth about my sister: April has cheated on every boyfriend she’s ever had.  So I think it’s safe to assume that she’s now doing the same to Drew. 
     
    See, April’s relationships generally last three to seven months.  There’s never a break between them, and she has yet to reach the one year mark with anyone.  When she gets tired of one guy or wants to break it off for whatever reason, she immediately finds another guy to replace the last one.  Sometimes the two relationships even overlap, and by “sometimes”, I mean every relationship she’s ever been in. 
     
    Even the one guy who’s ever dumped her, leading to the meltdown that led her not to be my maid of honor.  That was brought about when he looked at her phone and found fifty million texts and emails from some other dude. 
     
    My sister can’t help herself—she’s a free spirit.  It’s just who she is.  Back in high school, I remember our dad desperately trying to talk her out of going to art school, but she wouldn’t be deterred.  It was her dream, she pleaded tearfully over and over again until he finally relented.  He hated the idea of spending money on such an impractical degree, but she was so earnest, so sure of what she wanted.
     
    Then halfway through her freshman year, she dropped out of college and ran off to Europe to live in youth hostels.  While there, she got engaged to a French guy she’d been dating for all of two weeks.  She even invited dad and I to the wedding, but before anything was planned, she broke it off to fly back home because she was homesick.
     
    When she got here, she flitted from job to job, and for the time being, she takes people’s portraits at a photography studio.  She’s extremely talented and just got a huge raise and a promotion, which means she’ll probably tire of it soon and move on to something else.  And when she does, she’ll land on her feet and find something new that she’s just as good at.
     
    Things just have a way of working out for her like that. And the whole time she’s flitting from guy to guy, job to job, home to home, she leaves a bloody swath of broken hearts in her wake.  I know because I’ve spent many nights on our shared home phone consoling these poor, miserable saps when she dumps them and runs off with the next in line to catch her interest. 
     
    I decided long ago not to get attached to anyone in her life.  But then Drew came along, and I made an exception.  He’s someone special, and I truly hoped April was finally growing up and settling down, and that all her declarations of love for Drew actually meant something.
     
    I feel an ache in my chest, and I’m not sure if it’s from running, or if I’m just really, really sad for Drew.  I stop on the trail and see him slow down,