Seth scans it and nods once. “Correct.”
Elise sighs with a small smile. She tries to hide it, she can’t.
Ryan leans back and stretches. “Thank God.”
Seth closes the book and stands. “Go brush your teeth. Go to bed. You’ve had enough brain damage for one night.”
They gather their stuff and drag themselves down the hall, still arguing about whether chemistry is evil or just unfair. Their voices fade behind their bedroom doors.
The house settles.
The quiet that follows isn’t the same kind of quiet it used to be. It isn’t empty. It isn’t waiting to swallow me. A blanket left over the arm of a chair. A pair of Ryan’s socks abandoned near the hallway. A pencil on the table that nobody picked up.
I stare at it all for a second, and a feeling of contentment washes over me.
After my parents died, I spent years telling myself I didn’t need anyone. I learned how to carry grief by myself. I learned how to swallow loneliness and call it independence. I learned how to smile at people and keep the important parts locked away.
Then Seth showed up and changed everything.
Then Travis, Naomi, Beau, and somehow these two kids, Seth’s siblings, crashed into our lives and refused to leave.
This isn’t the family I imagined when I was younger. It’s not picture perfect. It’s not safe in the way normal people mean safe. It’s rough around the edges and insane.
But it’s mine.
And I love it.
Seth comes back into the living room after checking the locks. He turns off the last lamp in the kitchen and leaves only the soft light by the couch. Then he sits beside me, grabbing my feet and placing them in his lap.
“You wanna pick the movie?” he asks.
“You can pick it.”
He grabs the remote and scrolls through options, stopping on something with a screaming woman on the cover and a title that looks like it was written to be obnoxious.
I glance at him. “You picked this on purpose.”
Seth’s mouth twitches. “Maybe.”
Krueger lifts his head and settles it back down. Luna hops off the chair and climbs onto the back of the couch, tail flicking once as she watches us.
Seth hits play.
The opening scene starts with heavy music and a dark hallway.
I lean into Seth without thinking. His hand rests under the blanket on my thigh, thumb lazily stroking, his other arm stretched behind me. I’m just starting to drift when his phone buzzes on the coffee table.
He picks it up, sees the name, and grins. “Travis.”
He answers and hits speaker. “You better not be calling to interrupt. Brooke was just telling me how good I am with my tongue.”
I slap his chest, half-laughing, half-mortified.
Travis groans. “For fucks sake I don’t know why I still talk to you.”
“Because you miss us,” Seth mutters.
“‘Miss you’ is generous. I’m calling because I have something you’re gonna want to hear.”
