“Got it.” Orion found the remote and hitplay. “I’m going to help your sister get some rest, and then you and I are going to hang out for a bit. Would you like that?”
His eyes lit up again, and he nodded vigorously. “Hurry up and you can watch them in the fire swamp!”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
Orion rushed back to me. I shook my head, jostling more tears loose. They spilled hotly down my cheeks. “You’re so good with him,” I whispered. “But I hate that you’re here. Seeing this. You should go. Please…”
“Not on your life, Bennett,” he said gently. “Come on.”
Orion slipped his arms around my back and under my knees and carried me upstairs. The house was small enough that he found my room easily and set me on the edge of my bed.
“This room is very you,” he said, glancing around. “Eclecticandscholastic.”
A bookshelf lined one wall. My desk under the window was a mess of papers, charts, and graphs—the makings of my NoSci entry. Posters for Florence + the Machine and St. Vincent papered the walls…
“And a periodic table.” Orion grinned. “Because of course.”
I didn’t smile. “This is not how I imagined your first visit to my room.”
“Don’t start with me, Bennett,” he said. “Now is not the time for seduction. You need to get warmed up. Are you okay to take a shower? I’ll make some tea. Your voice sounds… a bit rough.”
Rough from screaming how I hate my mother. Because I do. I hate her.
Orion saw the defeated pall hanging over me. He knelt in front of me and took both of my cold, trembling hands in his large warm ones.
“Hey. I’m here.”
I raised my aching eyes to his. “I ruined your tux. I ruined your night.”
“You didn’t ruin anything,” he said. “The party wassoboring. I was standing around with a bunch of regatta fat cats, being congratulatedendlessly, and thinking to myself,I wish Harper would send me an ominous text that sends me out into a typhoon. That’s how boring it was.”
I started to laugh, which turned into more crying. He wrapped me in his arms again.
“Take a long hot shower, I’ll bring you some tea, and you can tell me everything.”
He left, and I moved like a zombie to the bathroom. I took the hottest shower I could stand, trying to drive the cold numbness away. It worked, but exhaustion seeped in to replace it.
I bandaged my scraped knees, dressed in flannel sleep pants and an NYU sweatshirt, and climbed into bed. No sooner did my head hit the pillow than my eyes wanted to close. I felt more than saw Orion return. He set a steaming mug of something on the nightstand, and the bed dipped as he sat beside me.
“This okay?”
I shook my head, hardly able to keep my eyes open. “This is so humiliating.”
“You have to stop worrying about that.” He ran his hand along my temple. “But love, what happened? Your mother left forfive days?”
I nodded. “She came home drunk, packed up a bag, and skipped town with her married dentist boss. And the roof started to leak just like I knew it would, because she didn’t bother to inspect the house when she bought it, and now we’re fucked. The end.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. I knew reality was going to come with the dawn. The past becoming prologue yet again. A book I thought I’d finished, only to find it hadn’t ended at all, but kept going and going…
I can’t do this again…
Exhaustion was dragging me down into merciful oblivion.
“Dash…?” I managed.
“He’s fine. I got him.”
“I’m sorry, Orion. I really wanted tonight.”
