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She doesn’t answer. Her mouth is hanging open. “Marry me, Adam. I don’t care if you’re missing some parts. I love you.”
“Yeah, his face turned out pretty well,” I say flatly. “So again: How are you?”
Aislin tries to focus. “I’m way hungover. Plus I guess someone must have dropped a safe on me.” She smiles, wincing, and I see a jagged, broken tooth.
When I was seven I broke a tooth after missing a landing on the balance beam. It grew back. How did I not notice how strange that was?
I am silent. Aislin’s lower lip trembles. She is about to cry.
I stand, push back my chair. And I hug her.
Why don’t I want to? Why do I feel as if my skin has been sandpapered and now everything is just too much?
“I have to help Maddox,” she says into my neck.
I push her, hold her out at arm’s length. “Maddox is a drug dealer. A stupid one, no less. He’s a drug dealer who ripped off other drug dealers. And he got you hurt.”
She steps back away from me. “What am I supposed to do? Just let them kill him?”
“How about calling the cops?”
She sighs. “He’ll go to prison.”
“Probably.”
I tap my foot, a parody of my mother. “Aislin. Seriously. What other option do you have?”
Aislin drops into my chair. Near her part, her hair is matted with blood. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
“How much does he owe?” I ask.
“I’m not asking you for money, E.V.”
“How much?” There’s a hard, cynical sound in my voice. I hate myself for using it.
She stares at her fingernails. “Nine thousand dollars.”
I wait for Aislin to protest that she doesn’t want it. That she’s not asking for it. But she is, so she can’t.
I don’t want to do it. I shouldn’t do it. But if it helps save Aislin from Maddox—from herself …
“If I do this, if I help out this one time, will you get your act together? Find a guy who treats you better? Will you make this crap with Maddox stop?”
Aislin sniffles, nods slightly.
The truth is, it’s not much money. It’s a lot for most people, but it’s nothing to my mother. The only problem is, my mother doesn’t give money away: She buys things. If I ask her for help, she’ll own me.
But I can only be bought once. So I need to raise the price.
I pull out my phone and text my mother.
Aislin is looking at Adam. “You’re missing a few parts.”
“I’m working on the brain,” I say, distracted.
“Why?”
“It’s part of the simulation,” I say. “He needs a brain. I’m trying to decide whether I should make him really smart, or just smart.”
