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"What?" She looked at the two boys who were watching her again. She hadn't had a lot of friends since she left high school. Especially ones that didn't know a thing about the Cantil. She focused on Renly for a moment. Whatever got into her upstairs with him was only going to get her into more trouble. Nothing good came out of keeping secrets from someone you were involving yourself with. Especially if they were both lying.
As far as she could see, starting any sort of connection with these boys was going to crash and burn whenever they realized how much of a Cantil she actually was. She couldn't set herself up for failure already, and these boys had already taken the first step by giving her a place to sleep and clothes to wear when she was vulnerable. How could she continue to stand and talk to them like she was someone else?
Like she was someonegood.
Like she didn't have a loaded gun lying against her hip in her bag.
"Unless you don't want to be friends..." Corbus trailed off, pulling his arm back.
"No!" Mykie blurted. "I mean, yes. I mean..." She didn't know what she meant. She felt eyes staring her down, pressuring her to get her thoughts straight.
She shook her head, digging around in her bag for her keys in one of the pockets. "I need to go." She thought she saw them in one of the inner pockets earlier, but when she didn't immediately find them, she started the panic. She looked at Renly, desperate for him to understand her urgency. "Where are my keys? Where is my car parked?"
She imagined she must half-crazed as she looked at them like a scared animal. She needed to get out of here and think instead of reacting now and hurting someone in the process—especially herself.
"Blaine probably hung them up with the rest of them in the garage, not thinking," Renly explained gently, pointing to the door beside the fireplace she noticed earlier.
She didn't waste time going for it. She threw the door open and flicked the overhead light on, waiting for the second it needed to boot up before she looked through the keys hanging on the same wall. She found hers and went straight past two cars and an empty parking spot to get to her car, not slowing down for a minute and with her shoes still in her hand. She climbed inside, throwing the heels and her bag in the passenger seat and sat there for a moment before she realized she couldn't open the garage door from inside the car.
She leaned her head forward on the wheel and she was tempted to scream if not for the knock on her window startling her into sitting up again.
She was expecting Renly to chase after her, but it was Corbus standing outside her door. He gestured for her to roll down her window and she did, curious about what he might have to say.
"Here," he said, holding a paper towel out with a few bacon strips. "I thought you should take the rest."
Mykie accepted the food, setting it on the dashboard in front of her. "I'm sure you're not as bad in the kitchen as he made it out."
He fixed his glasses from where they slid down his nose, looking away.
He chuckled. "Good to know someone believes in me. Everyone else thinks I can't cook." He paused, his smile morphing into a frown. "Or do anything the way I'm supposed to, really."
"I'm sorry," she said in a soft voice.
He shrugged. "Not your fault. But I came out here for more than bacon. I was a little aggressive back there, and I feel horrible. What I really wanted to say was that I liked talking to you this morning and if you ever need someone to talk, you can talk to me, if you'd like," he said, letting out a huge breathe.
He held a piece of paper out and she took it. A number was scribbled messily on a piece of scrap paper as if he wrote it quickly before running out there.
“I hope that isn’t too forward, either,” he murmured.
"Thank you, Corbus. I appreciate that." She meant it, too. The fact that hestillmade an effort after she ran out on them made her stomach fill with butterflies. She tried to squash them down, but the longer she looked at his innocent expression, she couldn’t hold them back.
"You have GPS, right?" He leaned forward a little into her window. "We're on top of a hill, so it's going to be a little drive back into the city."
Mykie nodded.
"Okay, I just wanted to make sure. I know I got lost a lot the first few weeks after we moved in." He grinned, his smile much wider now that she took his number. "I'll open the door and let you get moving, then."
He stepped back from the car and jogged towards the still open door leading to the house. She saw Renly peeking out the door and she couldn't help to grin at the way they were standing as if she couldn't see them from her car. She moved the bacon off the dashboard, taking another piece off the paper towel and stuffing it into her mouth, being a lot less neat than she was in front of Corbus.
Stepped back outside and pressed a button beside the door. Mykie waited for it to open patiently, watching Corbus stand in the doorway and chat with Renly behind him. His arms were crossed and his foot was tapping like he was agitated. What was Renly saying that he didn’t like? Gone was the shy look on his face with her and back was the boy from the night before again, sans the black hair. Was he putting on an act for her? Or was he being genuine when he spoke?
She dug around in her bag until she found her phone. It was only thirty percent charged, but she'd make it work. She quickly put Corbus' number in her phone before composing a message to let him and Renly know she was sorry for how she reacted.
Once she confirmed it was sent and the door opened, she drove out of the garage and down the driveway to the main road on the hill. She could practically feel someone staring her down when she left, but she brushed it off. It was probably one of the boys watching her go.
Breakfast Disasters
"Is there a reason why she came along?" Mykie whispered to Dexter, who was sitting beside her at the round diner table. Currently, Mykie, Dexter, Jezebeth, and Noah were waiting for their orders to be taken. Mykie was expecting Noah to come along, but Jezebeth was a surprise. When she stopped at her apartment to change into her own clothes, Jezebeth had already left, so she had no prior warning.
