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He shrugs. “He’s still around. Isn’t that all you need?”

“I need you.”

Guy doesn’t respond.

“I’ll make it up to you,” I promise, hoping I sound more seductive than I feel.

“I don’t care about that.”

He doesn’t?

“Then…why are you mad?”

“I’m not. Other people need me, too, sometimes. Not just you.”

“I know.” It’s not fair, what I ask of him. I know that. I just don’t know how to stop. “Do you want me to come with you instead?”

My boyfriend eyes me like I’ve sprouted several heads. “And get on Sergeant Sera’s bad side?”

I think back to what Khaos said.

“She doesn’t have to know.”

Guy shakes his head. “Be a good girl and do what you’re told.”

I don’t want to be a good girl. I want to be a loved girl. And no matter how hard I try at that first one, I never seem to achieve the second.

“What does your dad need you to do anyway?”

He’s back on the move, heading toward his SUV. “Just some errands.”

“I don’t understand why he needs you to do them right now,” I say, voicing what I think is perfectly reasonable.

Guy, however, does not. “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t expect someone without a job to.”

“Ouch.”

“You know what I mean.”

Actually I don’t. I have a job. It’s only for the summer, but it will be work. Hard work. Harder than setting up for an open house…if that’s what he’s doing. I don’t know because he won’t freaking tell me.

I swallow what feels like all of my pride to say, “Show me what it’s like to have one. Take me with you.”

“I don’t have time for your immaturity right now. I gotta go.”

“I’m not trying to be immature. I’m being serious. I’d like to understand what it is you do.”

“I don’t invite myself to your cheer practices to understand what you do.”

“No, but you’ve been to my performances, so you at least have an idea.”

“Not really,” he mutters like there’s some mysterious side of cheer I’ve been keeping from him.

“I’ve never seen you in action working for your dad. I think tonight would be—”

“Fuck, Kota, I’m just running errands. Do you even know what those are? Menial tasks that would bore you to death.”

Neither of us moves, yet I can feel the space between us expand.