She chuckled softly.
I looked at her. “What?”
“Nothing. I was just remembering a few years ago. I was sitting on my roof to my house, and you came up to sit with me. All those gulls had been nesting by our chimney. There were feathers everywhere. The moment you sat down – plop.”
I felt my cheeks redden as I recalled the massive bird shit that had dripped from my hair. “Why do you have to remember these things?” I grumbled.
She shrugged. “I like them. It reminds me that even Kieran Hawthorne was once human and covered in bird shit.”
“I remember things about you too, you know. I have a whole barrel of information I could shoot at Dev or Ash you know.”
She smiled at me. “You have nothing on me, Hawthorne.”
“Oh no? The bottle of vodka you stole from your dad at 16 ring a bell.”
She narrowed her eyes, flushing red. “Ok, fine. I’ll keep your secrets if you keep mine.”
“Deal.”
She took a deep breath. “I wouldn’t bother with Dev. He’s made his feelings about me pretty clear.”
“And what feelings are those?” I asked quietly.
She looked at me. “We are friends, apparently. Didn’t we look friendly in there?”
I didn’t answer right away.
“Did something happen between the two of you?”
Jealousy stirred in my gut, twisted and bitter.
She turned away. “Maybe.”
Maybe.
“Seph, what did he do?”
She met my gaze. “Nothing I didn’t want. So don’t go all cave man on me, Kieran.”
“Seph.”
“Kieran. I am a grown woman. I’m not the kid you thought I was any more.”
“I don’t think you’re a kid, Seph.”
She scoffed again. “Look whatever happened – it’s not happening again. So don’t worry.”
“Seph, talk to me.”
“And tell you what? That I’m scared? That I’m weak?”
“No one thinks you’re weak.”
“Yes they do. They all do. You do. And I am tired. Tired of being a side character in my own story.”
She looked away toward the mountains again.
“I hate that you guys are going. I hate that Ash and Sy went.”
