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Two identical sighs fill the room.

“It’s probably not as bad as you think it is, sailor.”

“No. It’s worse.”

Kota’s never gonna forgive me because I can never give her a reason to.

“Did you cheat?”

I yank my head off the couch to give Dex a withering glare. “The fuck would I do that for?”

He shrugs before rubbing his jaw. “Just checking.”

My head gets dropped back down, and I blow out a breath before saying, “She has sleep paralysis.”

Silence meets that statement. Either they already knew that, or they have no idea what sleep paralysis is. I didn’t. I thought it meant people couldn’t move when they slept.

“She sees demons in her sleep and thinks they’re real.”

Dex says, “Shit.”

“And she’s, like, awake, or feels like she’s awake anyway, but can’t move while they torment her.”

“Since when?” Tina asks.

“Since…” Her mom fucked her up. “She developed a fear of being alone, especially at night.”

“Explains why she kept Guy around for so long.”

“He was her cat,” I agree with Tina.

But Guy did a shit job keeping the pests away. I don’t. Kota doesn’t have those nightmares when I’m with her.

When I was with her.

“So I need you to go stay with Kota.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t. It’d be super weird.”

I sit up to look Tina in the eyes. “Please.”

She whimpers. “Don’t make me.”

Time to pull out the big guns.

“You owe me.”

“Sailor, it’d be so awkward. We’re adults now. We haven’t had a sleepover in years. Even if I went over there to offer my sympathies or whatever, there’s no guarantee she’d let me stay the night. That’s if she even let me in. We don’t talk.”

“You went to her house for parties,” I accuse.

“Those were more Guy’s parties. Kota and I avoided each other the whole time. She avoided everybody.”

I know she did. I’m probably the only one that knows why.

I miss reading with her. I miss reading to her. I miss her.

“What else can I do?”