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“That’s not what I mean. Sit down, okay?”
I sink back into my chair. “Then what do you mean?”
“Something’s off. She looks spooked.”
I nod. She does. “So what’s your point?”
“My point, man...” His dark brows knit. I don’t remember ever seeing Seth so serious. “This girl shouldn’t be spooked. She shouldn’t be sad.”
I stare at him. The hell?
We don’t talk much with Seth. He’s not brooding and aggressive like his cousin Shane, but he’s not loud and easily excited like Ocean or Jesse, either. He’s a quiet guy. And now he can’t stop talking.
“... so if you know there’s anything she’s afraid of,” Seth is saying, “anything Shane and I can help with... If she needs someone to protect her. We’re here for her. I’ve talked to Shane, and he feels the same way.”
I rub my face. Bleary or not, I’m obviously missing something here. “Why are you so eager to help her?”
“Why not?”
“Dammit, Seth. You think I’m an idiot?” I bang my fist on the table, making the mug jump and coffee slosh. Is he doing it on purpose, trying to make me hit him? “You said she helped you out once,” I bite out the words, “but going out on a fucking limb, I’d say there’s more to it than that, right?”
Seth looks away but not before I see a flash of pain in his expression. I’m good at reading faces. I’m good at connecting images with emotions. I’m a visual artist, after all.
And that flash of pain reins in my anger. I sit, patiently waiting for him to decide if he can trust me with his story or not. Because I’m sure there’s a story there. I can feel it in the shape of this meeting, in his reactions and words.
He finally turns to me but drops his gaze. I swear, if he did anything to hurt Ev in the past, I’m not gonna forgive him, no matter how bad it makes him feel now. I’m gonna punch his face into pulp.
The fact I’ve never been so angry on someone’s behalf before doesn’t escape me, but I can ignore it if I want, dammit. It’s my own fucked-up mind.
“You didn’t know us back then,” Seth says quietly. His body is slightly hunched over, and he spreads his hands on the table. “It was before Zane took us in.”
They’ve only known Zane for a few months, whereas I’ve known him for years. I was his apprentice back when I lived with my last foster family. Those were the good times, before I was sent back to the residential facility and ended up running away as often as I could.
Christ, I don’t want to remember that place.
Seth is silent for a while. Looks like he doesn’t want to remember, either.
“Being on the streets sucks,” he eventually says. “Having no home sucks. Having no options fucking sucks.”
Understatement of the year, if I ever heard one. I nod nevertheless, to encourage him to continue.
“We’d been on the street, on and off, for two years. It’s vicious, man. You can’t get out of that loop easily. Shane wasn’t well.” He taps his temple. “I mean here. He was in a bad place. It’s his character, but he’s also lost more than me, so...” Seth wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “You know how people pass you by and don’t even see you? As if you’re part of the ground you’re sitting on. Trash to be swept out in the morning. Or they get pissed at you for ruining their day by reminding them their stupid little problems aren’t important.”
I wait, trying not to tense up again. I do my best to unclench my hands. All I want is to forget, and his story brings back all sorts of nightmares. Damn, not sure I wanna sleep tonight.
“So, there I was, trying to keep Shane from going off the edge,” Seth muttered. “Wasn’t holding up so well myself, either. It was raining, and the cars would splash us passing by. Shane hadn’t eaten in days. He even refused water. I think he’d given up. And then she appears.” Seth looks up at me, a half-smile on his face. “She really saw us, man. Looked right at us and came to squat in the puddles to ask how we were doing. You should have seen Shane’s face. It was like he woke up for the first time in days. She went and bought us warm food and a blanket, and then she passed at least every other day to check on us until Zane took us in.”
Their story matches my own in many ways. Okay, so that’s why this is important to Seth. We sit in silence for a while.
Then he says, “I’ll just keep an eye ou
t for her. See if anyone has been bothering her.”
“She saved my life,” I blurt, not even really knowing why I’m telling him this. “But she doesn’t remember me.”
His brows shoot up. “For real?”
“What do you think?” I shake my head. “But it’s more than that.”
