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“Try me.” She’s got her all-business face on, the one that has seen her through countless cheerleader tryouts and student council elections. I’m defenseless against the Face. I take a deep breath and dive in. By the end of it, I’m exhausted and Jenna looks like somebody’s secretly replaced her reality with a different one, which I suppose is one hundred percent true.
“You know this sounds crazy,” Jenna says finally.
I shake my head. “Believe me, I know. But I’m not going back, Jenna. I can’t. Not yet.”
The guys goofing around near our table get a little too physical again, and the same guy bumps our table hard. He doesn’t apologize this time.
“Do you mind?” Jenna says, and the guy moves away. “Cameron, how do you know this is all true?”
“I don’t.”
“That scares me.”
“Yeah. It scares me, too.” I need to change the subject, and fast. “So, spring break at the Party House, huh? How’d that happen? Weren’t you supposed to go skiing with the Lord?”
She makes a face.
“I meant Chet. I get those two mixed up sometimes.”
Jenna fiddles with her straw. “Chet and I broke up.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“No you’re not,” she says, laughing.
Okay, I’m not. But I am sorry she’s sorry. “He didn’t mess with you or anything, did he?”
She rolls her eyes. “No. He just kept pressuring me to be more like him, and if I wasn’t like him, he didn’t know what to do with me. He’s dating some girl from his church now. They like all the same things.”
o;It’s sixty-five dollars a night and free cable,” I explain. “I’ll be out in one second.”
She nods and I enter the hazy room with Balder. I turn on the bedside lamp. “Balder, I’ve gotta deal with my sister. Will you be okay here by yourself?”
“Just lock the door, please,” he says. “I don’t care to have any more adventures.”
“Sure thing.”
“Cameron.”
“Yeah?”
“That was a very brave thing you did today, rescuing me, offering all your money.”
“Well, I couldn’t let them turn one of my best buds into a promo snuff reel,” I say.
Balder gives me a self-satisfied little smile. “I’ve told you, I can’t be harmed.”
“Yeah. Sure. I know that. But still.”
“Will Gonzo be okay?”
Gonzo. Shit. “Don’t worry. The show doesn’t tape till late tonight. I’ll rescue him before then and we’ll all be long gone by morning.”
Balder nods. For the first time, he looks worried. “What’s up?” I ask.
“Sometimes, I dream of my ship, of Ringhorn. It shines like the sun after rain, and I’m running toward it.”
“Sounds like a good dream.”
