won’t. I suppose either way it doesn’t actually matter.
I pull on some sweats and grab my phone, scrolling through to my sister’s name. I promised Gray I would always call in an emergency, and I think maybe this is one. I know she’s in Boston again, visiting friends, and I shouldn’t be bothering her. But still, this is me keeping a promise for once in my life.
“Hey, Ridley,” she says, picking up on the second ring, and I can hear her smile through the phone. It’s loud wherever she is, and I glance at the time. It’s barely nine o’clock; she’s probably still out to dinner or something. Gray’s like that—she’s the kind of person who’ll have dinner at eight, the kind of person other people want to be around.
“Hi.” I try to sound cheerful. I am so not her problem, and I feel bad for calling now.
“Shit, hang on a second?”
“It’s okay,” I say, because truly I don’t want to fuck up her night. I wouldn’t have called if she hadn’t made me swear.
“Can you hear me?” she asks half a minute later. Wherever she is now, it’s quiet.
“Yeah, but don’t worry about it.”
“Shut up, Ridley. What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I lie. “I was just bored.”
“You sure?” She hesitates, and I know what’s coming. “Are you safe?”
I roll onto my back and drop one arm over my eyes. I hate when she asks if I’m safe. It makes me feel like I’m two years old. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it. I was just calling to say hi.”
“I’d rather talk to you than anybody in that room, and you know it. Whatever it is you’re trying not to tell me, spill, or I’m driving over right now to make you say it face-to-face.”
I scoff. “Boston’s like ninety minutes away.”
“Sixty in a rush,” she says, her voice firm and worried. “Don’t test me.”
“Peak is Vera Flores’s stepdaughter,” I blurt out, because Peak has been the subject of probably 60 percent of my texts with Gray lately, and she’ll get exactly how bad that is.
“Holy shit,” she says, and then goes quiet for a second. “How is that possible?” I don’t answer, and there’s a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line. “You knew when you agreed to do this, didn’t you?”
I roll onto my side, blinking hard. “Yeah.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t put this together. Ridley, this is really . . .” She trails off like she doesn’t know what else to say.
“I screwed up. I know.”
“Peak was your in this whole time? I thought you liked her.”
“I do like her! I really like her! But Dad was so happy, and it just snowballed. All of a sudden, I was back in my old room, and he was taking me out to dinner and making small talk, and he’s never been like that with me.”
“Ridley—”
“You know that’s true! You and I might have the same last name, but we don’t have the same parents. They aren’t there for me the way they are for you. And when he dangled a chance to come home—”
“That’s not home, Ridley. It’s just a house we used to live in.”
“You don’t understand.” My eyes burn, because she doesn’t. She really doesn’t.
“I’m trying,” she says. “But you can’t keep this up. It’s not healthy for you, and it’s not fair to her.”
“I know. I told her today that I was Bats.”
“Oh god, what did she say?”
“She seemed happy at first.”
“At first?” Her voice sounds hesitant, and I squeeze my eyes shut because if I don’t, I’m going to start bawling.
“Yeah.” I sniff. “And then I told her my real last name, and she slammed the door in my face.”
She sighs, and I count to five before she speaks again. “Okay, walk me through it.”
I shrug, even though she can’t see me. “There’s nothing really to walk through. I told her everything, and now