“My gaming room looks a lot like yours.”
As if I haven’t noticed. I mutter, “Yeah. I love it. I was just…giving you a hard time about it when I told you I probably needed a tetanus shot after being in there.”
He warms. “It occurs to me that when you froze after seeing it for the first time, you were probably fangirling, not horrified.”
He’s not wrong.
But I am not obligated to tell him that.
He says, “I keep my room bare because there are fewer things for my sleep-paralysis demons to hide behind.”
My heart twinges at the thought of that. “Really?”
He nods.
“That sucks.”
“I’m naturally neat, but…definitely in more of a chaos hovel way. Where everything is in its place, but there’s a lot of everything, like in my gaming room.”
“Personally, I think your bedroom is creepy. I’m shocked that it helps with your nightmares. If I were picking decor to offset demons, I’d opt for plush. Ice blues and pale pinks. And, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but your bed?”
“What about my bed?” he murmurs, all suggestion.
I temper my breaths and contain myself. “There’s not a single stuffed animal on it. Stuffed animals, since the beginning of time, have been known to fight monsters. It’s like you’re not even trying to not have scary dreams.”
He ponders that for a moment, then a familiar glint of mischief takes hold of him. “You’re so right. You wouldn’t happen to be able to connect me with a life-size doll maker, would you? I’d like to order myself a mistress to cuddle and protect me from the baddies.”
My eyes close. “Ugh.”
“No? I suppose I could ask Maelin to make it for me… It’d be more accurate that way, too. She knows her twin best.”
“I so dearly wish you hadn’t seen that card. It’s disgusting. You can just say I’m disgusting. I wish you’d acknowledge it outright.”
“Disgusting?” he murmurs. “What were you planning to do with my life-size likeness that would make itdisgusting?”
My eyes snap open. “Nothing. Gross. I just—”
“You just…”
I tear my gaze off him. “You’re a comfort character. And I’m…” My stomach hurts. This is terrible. “I’m lonely. Ever since Maelin left, it’s felt so cold here. I’m not used to being all by myself, and before you go alltherapiston me,yes. I’m fully aware that her moving out so suddenly presses on this abandonment issue I’ve got.”
No jokes, softly, he says, “Our house is huge, Morana. You can have a room in it as far away from me as you can get. You don’t have to be here all by yourself.”
“Right. Because being on the other side of the same house when you’re willing to drive all the way out to mine is supposed to do anything where it concerns privacy from you.”
“To be fair, there’s less walking between my room and the garage than there would be between my room and the south wing.”
“As if tucking me all the way back in the south wing would make me feel any less alone?” I drawl.
“You’re right. What am I thinking? You should absolutely come redecorate my room and share it with me instead. My ulterior motives are now laid bare. You’re much too smart for me to get away with any of my dastardly plots.”
I roll my eyes to the next question on our worksheets. “Who apologizes first after a fight?” I read, then I scoff. “What a joke.”
“I know.”
“What did you put?”
“We don’t fight, obviously. We never have and never will.”
