“I’d rather play two v two with Laney on my team.”
“Hey!” Laney shouts. “Remember that one time I got a kill?”
Lucas chuckles. “Yeah, your eyes were closed, and you were button-mashing.”
“Still counts.” Laney shrugs, focuses on her knitting again.
I throw the controller on the floor. “I don’t want to play anymore.”
“What else are you going to do?” Logan murmurs, throwing in an eye-roll. “Go to your room and rub one out?”
“You’re so crass,” Laney chastises.
“I’m so bored,” Lucas groans, throwing his controller next to mine. “This is fucked.”
“Language!” Virginia calls from the kitchen.
“Sorry,” Luke replies, then flops down on the floor next to Laney.
“You have a car,” Logan tells Luke. “You can leave at any time.”
“And go where? There’s nothing to do here,” Luke retorts.
Garray scratches his nuts.
Laney says, “Gross.”
And I heave out a sigh, wondering what Mia could possibly be doing to occupy her days. And questioning why I was no longer a part of them.
A knock on the door has us all looking toward the sound, but none of us make a move to get up.
“Who the hell knocks on the door?” Lucas mumbles.
“Your aunt Leslee,” Laney answers.
All eyes go to Logan. “What did you do?” Luke asks him.
“Nothing!” Logan says, defensive.
Aunt Leslee is Dad’s sister, and she’s a hard-ass compared to Dad. When any of us kids get in trouble, real trouble, Dad sends us to stay with her. Logan’s the one who gets in the most trouble, the worst trouble.
It isn’t Aunt Leslee, though. It’s Mia. She slowly opens the door when she must realize that no one was going to answer. Her gaze quickly scans the living room full of bodies before landing on me. My heart stutters, kicks into overdrive when she bites her lip, says, “Hey.”
I can feel all eyes on me when I reply, “Hey.”
Mia looks around the room again, her cheeks turning pink, before lowering her gaze. “Uh, sorry, I was… never mind.”
Logan waits for the door to close behind her before letting out a snicker. “She’s so weird,” he says, low enough so that Virginia won’t hear it. He has no idea that Virginia doesn’t give two shits about her daughter. Only I know that, and that creates a pain in my chest that has me standing up, ignoring Logan’s teasing when I open the front door and follow after her. She’s at the bottom of the apartment steps when I catch up to her. I don’t reach out, don’t touch her like I want to. “You good?”
“Yeah, it’s nothing,” she says, rushing up the steps.
Obviously, it’s not nothing. Mia’s never just come to the house searching for me before. “You want to go to our spot?” I call out, stopping short of telling her that I miss her. Because that would be sad. And pathetic.
She stops halfway and slowly turns to me, shaking her head.
Disappointment fills me, and whatever physical reaction I have is apparent, because she starts back down toward me. “It’s just… that spot is my happy place, and I don’t want to ruin it.”
“Okay,” I rush out. “You want to just go for a walk or something?”
After a quick nod, she passes me and leads the way.
I want to tell her that I’ve been worried. That there have been so many times I had to talk myself out of simply knocking on her door to check in. I figure she needed time. Space. Alone. Just like that phone call that seems to have changed everything between us.
We walk.
In silence.
Through the yard.
Past the trees.
Until our flip-flops are off and we’re ankle-deep in the lake.
Then she stops, turns to me. “What’s your greatest fear, Leo Preston?”
I’d checked out of the moment, so deep in my blank space, that I’d forgotten where I was and what I was doing. I blink hard and look down at her. Mia’s gaze penetrates mine, her dark hair moving with the wind, shifting around her face. A strand catches on the wetness of her lips, and I realize it now; I more than missed her. I’d felt empty without her presence; every hour of every day had become a never-ending void.
Her eyebrows rise, waiting, questioning, and I’ve forgotten what she asked.
“Huh?”
Mia shakes her head. “It’s okay. You don’t have to answer.” She starts to turn, but I grab her hand.
“No, I didn’t hear you.”
She repeats, almost hesitantly, “I asked you what your greatest fear was.”
I think about it a moment before replying, “That this is how I’m going to be for the rest