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“You were there all the time?”
He nodded.
“Didn’t you ever… get lonely?”
Kulti studied my face. “At first, but you get over it.”
Get over it? At eleven? Good gracious. Where was the nurturing?
“Do… you still see your parents?” I asked, not sure whether I was going into territory he didn’t want to get into or not.
A small sharp snicker came out of his mouth. “My mother called me a few days ago saying she’s ready for a new house.”
I had to fight back a wince. Him buying it for her was implied, wasn’t it? “It’s nice that you take care of her.” I trailed off, not really sure if it was nice or not, or whether he genuinely wanted to provide for them. Because I mean, who demands a new house? Where the hell do you get the balls to do that?
He blinked and confirmed my suspicion that he might have been getting forced into buying his mom a house. Feeling uncomfortable that I had brought up something a little sensitive, I reached forward and ran my index finger up the sole of his foot, surprised when he jerked it away violently.
I stood there and watched him with a big dumb smile on my face. “You’re ticklish?”
With both knees now to his chest he scowled over. “No.”
“Ha.” I laughed. “That’s cute.”
He didn’t look like he was amused.
I gripped the bars and smiled over at him before climbing up to the bunk bed, conscious to keep my long T-shirt tucked between my thighs on the way up. “Will you get the light or should I turn it off? I’m ready to go to bed but you can leave it on, it won’t bother me. The remote is by the dresser.”
“I’ll get it,” he said, the mattress making some creaking noises as I heard him settle in.
Getting comfortable, I pulled the sheets up to my chin and rolled onto my good shoulder, facing the wall. “All right. Night, Rey. Wake me up if you need something,” I yawned.
From below, the German said, “Goodnight,schnecke.”
“You’re not calling me a shithead or anything, are you?” I yawned again, drawing the sheet up higher to cover my eyes.
“No,” he replied simply.
“Okay. If you want to go home tomorrow or if you’d rather stay in a hotel if you aren’t comfortable, let me know, all right?”
“Yes.”
One last lion-like yawn made my chest expand wide. “Okay. Night, night.”
He might have said “Goodnight” again, but I was pretty much out the second I finished talking.
Icreptdown the bunk-bed stairs when the room was still dark. It didn’t matter if I set an alarm; more often than not, my body just knew it was time to get up. As quietly as I could I fumbled around for my clothes, barely able to see. I pulled my nightshirt up over my head…
Then the fan light came on.
I froze. I froze there in my underwear, wearing nothing else.
“What are you doing?” Kulti’s sleep-thick voice asked.
Well then. I could freak out and make a big deal out of standing there mostly naked, or I could take it like a champ and make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal that I was topless and in one of my oldest pairs of value-pack panties.
“I’m going for a run,” I said slowly in a whisper, still not moving an inch. “Go back to sleep.”
There was a pause and then the mattress started creaking. I knew beforehand what he was going to say. “I’ll come.”
