You really can barely make anything out, but Wendy follows my gesture anyway, staring up to the dark blue and the few winking points of light.
“No matter where you go, you’ll always have the same stars shining down on you.” I lower my hand. “My grandma used to tell me that when I got homesick,” I add, quietly. “So…yeah.”
Wendy stares. “Yeah,” she echoes.
Feeling suddenly awkward, I stand back up. “Um. Yeah. Let me know if you need anything?—”
I reach for the light chain and yank it, leaving the room dark, and start to pull the door closed behind me, when?—
“Wait,” comes Wendy’s voice. “Um, can you just leave that open a crack?”
“Oh.” I twist the handle and push it forward the inch or two that it’ll move against the door. “Sure. That better?”
“I’m not afraid of the dark,” Wendy’s voice comes fast. “I’m not a baby. I just…”
“It’s okay,” I say. “Being a grown-up’s overrated.”
There’s a long silence from inside the spare room. “Thanks, Tink,” Wendy says at last. “Um, good night.”
“Night,” I say. I walk down the hallway slowly, my stomach sinking with every step.
Not because Wendy’s in the way. Not because she’s a problem. Not even because she’s a kid.
Because she’s a girl. A girl who feels like a problem.
And I think back to what I said earlier, what I shouted in front of all the guys.
We can’t have a girl living with us.
And wecan’t, I think.
Not one, and definitely not two.
CHAPTER 15
BLUE
11 p.m.and I’m still at the Lagoon.
If Treasure gives me shit, I’ll tell her I need to pay Sapphire the cash I owe her for the other night. Which is true. Medium thick stack of bills I pulled out at an ATM earlier, right here.
But I don’t see Sapphire. Maybe she thinks she’s being cute? I don’t know. I’m not keeping her money no matter how much she avoids me. Hell, I’ll just leave it here as a tip for whichever girl’s working the bar.
I sip my whiskey and nearly spit it out.
Or maybe not leave a tip.
Fuck, what is this?
I lift the glass again and smell. Sugary. Spiced. A ripple of annoyance goes down my back—the one thing I wanted to be the same as usual today and someone fucks it up.
I close my eyes and clench my jaw.
Tink. This is all because of fucking Tink. Not the drink. But the reason I’m still here and not back home, therealreason. I know Pan was yapping about his stupid fucking jacket and Fox wouldn’t shut up about the fucking dog, or whatever, but somehow I know, I just fucking know, that we wouldn’t be stuck with a fucking kid if it weren’t for Tink.
Because I’m more certain of it now than I even was before.
Tink’s hiding something.
