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“Lev, Polly asked you a question.”
He glances at me for only a second. “I want Alyssa.”
“Alyssa?” she asks immediately, her eyes glomming onto me. “Who’s that?”
“My friend,” Lev replies without missing a beat.Sure,now,he decides to speak up.“She’s my very pretty friend.”
Lev’s preoccupation with her might be getting a little out of hand. As soon as the thought comes, I snort.I’m one to talk.I’m in ten times deeper than he is.
“You made a new friend?” Polly asks as her tone brightens instantly. She waits until Lev’s head is buried in his cereal bowl again before she turns to me and lowers her voice. “Is that a real person?”
I shake my head. “He likes to play pretend sometimes. That’s all this is.”
“He’s never named an imaginary friend before. Especially not a ‘very pretty’ one.”
I shrug. “There’s a first time for everything.”
Thankfully, she lets the subject drop. The moment Lev finishes his bowl of cereal—for dinner, no less—he’s bouncing out of his chair and gunning straight for the gaming room.
“I keep waiting to get used to that,” Polly says, so softly I almost miss it.
“To what?”
She shrugs. “To Lev. Being… different.”
I rack my brain for something to say, anything at all, but I come up blank. “How’s school?” I ask instead. Pol makes a retching sound. I raise my eyebrows. “Am I supposed to know what that means?”
“You know what Lev’s sounds mean.” My eyebrows rise a little higher. It’s been a while since Polly last sounded like a snotty teenager. “Shoot, sorry,” she says with a sigh. “That was bitchy.”
“It’s okay. Sounds like something’s going on. Wanna talk about it?”
“It’s nothing major. Just Rachel being Rachel.”
“I thought you were sticking to your side of school and she was sticking to hers?”
She smirks a little. “Youwerelistening.”
“I do that from time to time.”
She nods. “I know. Nikolai doesn’t, though.”
Much as I want to kick his ass sometimes, I also feel the need to defend him. “He’s got a lot on his plate recently. I wouldn’t take it personally. What’s Rachel doing now?”
“You really want to know?”
“If it’s affecting you, I sure as fuck want to know.”
She suppresses a smile. “Honestly, it’s all mind games with her. She’s alienating Clare and me. She gets off on the power high.”
“Do you need me to come down and sort her out?”
“No!” My sister looks aghast. “That would just make everything worse.”
“How?”
“Uh—having my big brother come down to straighten out the queen bee? That would besoembarrassing.”
“If you change your mind, I’m right here.”
