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JOÃO
“Come on, Ana,” I said, taking her hand and tugging her into the mall.
She clutched my fingers with her smaller ones, her hair in high pigtails and her body dressed in a pink ballerina dress that she had begged me to wear, her grin so wide. “This is the mall?!” she asked, glancing at everyone walking around. “It is so big!”
“So many stores here too,” I said. “Do you wanna shop afterward?”
“Yeah! Do you think they have a princess store?”
“Maybe.”
Giggling to herself, she bounced up and down beside me. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see where the hell Landon wanted us to meet him. He had texted me this morning and said it was urgent and gave us a location but not much else.
I was glad that he hadn’t made plans with Imani after spending the night at her house. Part of me hadn’t wanted to come and definitely didn’t want to face him because all I would see in his eyes was Imani. But Poison was together to the fucking end.
“Landon is over here!” Ana said, pointing and pulling me along.
“Christ, Ana,” I said, stuffing my phone into my jeans and hurrying after her. “Slow down.”
Ana slowed her pace, gaze falling on the Dairy Queen that we passed. “Can we get ice cream after too?”
Mid–head nod, I glanced up at Landon and Kai … and Imani standing across the food court. I froze and scowled, any lightness inside of me disappearing when I saw her face. I didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with me. I had been the fucking one to admit to her my feelings last night. I just … didn’t want to face her today.
“Ana, we’re leaving,” I said, about to turn around.
But Ana escaped my grasp and ran over to Imani, her sneakers slapping hard against the tiled ground and lighting up with pink flashing lights. “Imani!” she shouted, jumping into Imani’s arms and grinning.
Imani picked her up and smiled, glancing over at me. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the guys, not once looking over at her. But, fuck, I wanted to watch her and Ana. She cared about Ana, and Ana fucking loved her too.
“Come here, Ana,” I said sternly.
Ana shook her head and clutched on to Imani’s shoulders tighter. “Imani!”
Imani stared at me, her gaze burning into my fucking body.
Ana cuddled closer to her and laid her head on Imani’s shoulder. “Guess what, Imani. João was sad last night because of you.”
The guys and Imani turned toward me, and I clenched my jaw and glared at Ana. After I had convinced her that nothing was wrong so she could go to sleep, she had still told Imani about last night. And, fuck, I didn’t want Imani to know about any of that shit.
“Are you guys coming?” someone said from behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Imani’s mother standing behind me. “Fuck, this day keeps getting fucking worse,” I said underneath my breath.
Landon was going to fucking get it later for forcing me to come to this shit.
“What are we doing here?” Kai asked, hands stuffed into his cargo pants.
“We’re going to get you guys on health insurance,” Imani said. “You know, so you don’t go into piles of debt, dealing with medical bills.” She looked over at me. “And so you can have a good start when you finally get out of this shithole of a town.”
Health insurance?
We were here to get health insurance?
“Come on,” Imani’s mother said. “I’ve made appointments for all of you.”
Forty minutes later, I had filled out a plethora of forms for Ana and me to get on our own health insurance because we didn’t have any right now. This town didn’t support drug addicts or previous drug addicts who had gotten clean, like it should’ve. And Mom couldn’t afford it for us either.
Ana sat in Landon’s lap as he filled out some papers with the health insurance worker. I stood off to the side with my arms crossed over my chest and nothing but annoyance on my mind because Imani wouldn’t stop glancing over at me.
