Livvie Owen Lived Here Read Online Free

baby collar jingled on my wrist and I caught Lanie glaring.
    â€œWhat’d you do to your foot, Liv-long-and-prosper?” Natasha asked. It was one of her goofy nicknames for me that made me uneasy when I was a little kid and made me giggle now.
    â€œI broke my mug and stepped on it.” I picked at the bagel. I really wanted yogurt, but there was nothing to drink it out of.
    â€œYour mud mug?” She gave me a quick glance. I think the look there was called sympathy. “I’m sorry, hon.”
    â€œIt was stupid.” I shrugged. “I shouldn’t have been climbing on the chair, but also the whistle shouldn’t have blown.”
    â€œYeah, that was weird, huh?” Natasha agreed. “Somebody must have been fooling around at the old factory.”
    Eyes roved around the table—mine, Lanie’s, my parents’—everyone but Natasha’s. Hers stayed cluelessly on her book, just above her bagel.
    â€œYou mean you—you heard that?” I asked faintlywhen it appeared the rest of my family was not going to ask.
    â€œYeah, it was weird. It sounded just like it used to back at the Sun House. It was like old times.” She smiled quickly up at the table, then looked up again at length when she realized we were all still staring at her.
    â€œWhat?” she asked with something funny in her voice that I thought might be called guilt. “Livvie always says she misses the Sun House. Why can’t I?”
    â€œI guess there really was a whistle,” Simon breathed to Karen.
    I felt something bubble up in my stomach too suddenly for me to put a name to it. My hands clenched up and I wrinkled my forehead. “How come you believe it when Tash says it? I told you I heard it, but just because Lanie didn’t—”
    â€œThat’s because they know I’m sensible,” Lanie said in what she pretended was a helpful voice. “You’re fanciful. That’s something different. It means you might be making up a whistle, but
I
would tell the truth.”
    I slapped my bagel back down on my plate, making Natasha’s fork jump out of the cream cheese tub and clatter on the table. “I always tell the truth! And Tash heard it, too, so who’s the liar now, huh?You must have heard it! You share a room with Tash and she heard it!”
    â€œThe only thing I heard was you banging and hollering in the middle of the night when Bentley and I needed our sleep!”
    â€œYou and stupid Bentley!” I stood up and slammed my chair back so hard it hit the counter. Bentley’s cage rocked dangerously. “Why don’t you just go marry him?”
    â€œOlivia!” My father fixed me with a stare that made my insides feel like I had swallowed something slimy. “Have a seat, young lady.”
    â€œBut—” I stomped and pointed at Lanie. She stomped back and crossed her arms over her chest, turning her back squarely to me. Usually Lanie proclaimed herself too old for such behavior, but I seemed uniquely able to bring it out in her.
    My father held up his hand to silence both of us, then turned to Lanie. “Melanie, please stop picking at your sister.”
    â€œBut she—” She pointed back at me.
    Natasha grabbed Lanie’s pointing finger and folded it back to her side, under the table so Karen and Simon couldn’t see. “Honey,” she said to me calmly while Lanie struggled to get free. “What time did you hear that whistle?”
    â€œPrecisely nine-fifteen,” I said in kind of a small voice. With Natasha’s calm gaze on me, I remembered how important it was now not to have outbursts. I was forever remembering things too late.
    â€œWell, that’s funny, ’cause I was asleep,” Natasha said. “But I definitely heard it.”
    Lanie yanked her hand away with a huff, but she didn’t point or say anything else. This, coupled with Natasha’s words, finally made it