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“Thank you for bringing these over, Joey. I really appreciate it,” Nina tells him, wringing her hands.
“Of course.” Joey nods. “You haven’t been over.”
“No,” Nina mutters, swallowing thickly. “I’m taking some time. I came and told you that already.”
He seems to stand in a trance, just watching her. “Joey, are you okay?” Nina eventually asks, her voice full of worry.
“You asked me that already.” He continues to stare at her.
Nina steps forward. “Sorry, Joey, I think—”
The door clicks shut in the entry, and we all turn to look toward the sound.
I tilt my head when I see the woman standing at the entrance.
“Well, haven’t you done well for yourself.”
“Mum?” Nina mutters in disbelief. She shakes her head before her features settle as if remembering. “You got my letter?”
My own brows lift in surprise, watching the bizarre exchange. Nina looks nothing like her mum. There are similarities, but nothing like Nina described.
“I got your letter, but there wasn’t my money,” she slurs the words, and my heart sinks.
A feeling of deep sorrow for Nina, my friend, seems to chase away our earlier happiness.
Her mum’s drunk.
“What do you mean your money, Mum? You haven’t asked for money in months.”
Nina’s mum sniggers. “Because you cut me off!” she yells, gripping her bag with trembling fingers. “Is this him?!” She sneers at Joey, and my heart all but stops when I realise she thinks Joey is my brother.
I watch her take a step further into the lounge, and something inside of me, a deep protectiveness I can’t explain, has me stepping with her.
Nina’s voice barely shakes me out of my own head. “By him, I presume you mean Mason. And no, this is Joey—my friend. And Scarlet, Mason’s sister.”
A snigger. “Don’t get smart with me!” I frown as she fumbles with the strap on her bag, her grip white-knuckled. She’s livid. Her anger like a tidal wave in the room, getting higher and higher.
Her eyes snap from Joey to me, then back to Nina. “Where is he?”
Mason.
She’s looking for Mason.
“Are you serious right now?!” Nina fumes. “How dare you come into my home and speak to me like this!”
Her mother flinches, or at least it seems like a flinch, her hand dipping into her bag before she pulls it out again.
I still as she lifts her arm to where I’m standing.
Everything stills… but my racing heart.
I’ve never seen a gun in person. My dad wouldn’t allow them on the estate, always saying they were too dangerous to have stored with kids around. He always did everything he could to protect me. Mason too.
Who’s going to protect me now?
“Mum?” Nina’s voice is barely a whisper, and something that feels like pure dread fills my gut.
I don’t move, but my eyes blur as traitorous tears fill them.
