Page 108 of So Thirsty

The clock says it’s four seventeen p.m. It could be wrong, but if it isn’t, he’s been gone all day.

I slide out of bed and put on pants, a T-shirt, my boots without socks.

When I open the door of our room, Naomi’s standing there.

I slam my hand to my chest. “You startled me.”

She still wears her Penny Lane jacket, despite its being bloodstained. The stains have faded to an inconspicuous brown, though. No one would assume it’s blood. Hopefully.

“What are you doing out here?” I ask her.

“I don’t know. Ask Dracula,” she says, pointing to her room.

“What?”

“Your boyfriend knocked on our door, like, half an hour ago. They’re all in there plotting. I went out for a cigarette,” she says, tossing a pack up in the air. “Don’t have to worry about them killing me anymore. You know how I love to look for that juicy sweet silver lining.”

“What do you mean, plotting?” I say. “Let’s not stand in the hall.”

I pull her into my room and close the door behind us.

“Sharing a bed, I see,” she says, flopping down on the other, still-made queen.

“What did he say? When he came in.”

“They’re robbing a bank,” she says casually, lighting a cigarette. “I fucking missed smoking. Lollipops? What was I thinking?”

“Are you joking?”

“Blue raspberry doesn’t hit the same, you know?”

“No, I mean about the bank. And put that out—you’re going to set off the alarm.”

She groans but does as I ask, getting up and putting the cigarette out in the bathroom sink. “They’re robbing a bank tonight.”

“Are you being serious? I can’t tell.”

“Sorry. We’re robbing a bank tonight,” she says, leaning against the wall. “A blood bank. And yes, I’m serious.”

“What specifically did he say?”

“He knocked on the door, woke us up. Woke up Tatiana and Elisa. They all huddled in our room. He said he found a blood bank and they’re going to rob it tonight. There was some hesitance because it’s, like, short notice. I gather they usually plan these things well in advance. Ilie was, like, what’s the rush? Henry didn’t say but I think we all know.”

“Know what?”

She gestures to me. “The rush.”

“Me?”

“Well, and that.” She points to the cooler. “Ms. Alice cleared us out.”

“I don’t want to hold up a blood bank.”

“Seems like it’s going to be more Ocean’s Eleven than Bonnie and Clyde.”

I fall on the unmade bed and put my head in my hands. She sits herself beside me.

“This clearly isn’t their first time,” she says. “We’ll get what we need without…” She mimes chomping into me. “Sip it out of a cup like it’s Diet Dr Pepper. What is Dr Pepper a doctor of, exactly?”