Page 4

“Yeah.” I got my phone out again. Still nothing. I watched the passing streetlights we drove under reflect off of its screen. There was a pick wedged in between the door’s armrest and the door. Darius’s hair was far too short for it, close-cropped over his head like a layer of dark velvet. Maybe he had a sister.

“Must be nice,” Darius said. I glanced over and realized he was giving me side-eye.

“What?”

“To get out of work so easily.”

I shrugged. “It is. The trade-off though is that when you are at work, you sometimes catch Burton staring at you creepy.”

He made an appropriately disgusted noise and then said the wrong thing. “Dude, that’s totally worth it.”

I inhaled to ask him how he’d feel about that if he had boobs, then stopped since I’d rather not attract attention to my own. They’d been doing a fine job of that themselves ever since I’d turned twelve. When I’d turned thirteen and realized why guys were staring—I felt like I’d been putting up with Burtons my whole life. Darius had no idea. “Here’s my turn,” I said, pointing.

“I know,” he said and rolled in, sans turn signal.

I directed him back through the park to where our trailer was, refusing the temptation to make him drive by Lacey’s. Allie was alone—hopefully not waiting up—and my mom’d be home soon. I needed to beat her there.

He parked on our driveway and I hopped out, looking back. “Did you really not know that I wanted a ride, earlier?” He was a year older than me and in a sprinkling of honors classes, just like I was. But just because he was math-smart didn’t mean he couldn’t be stupid.

He had an easy smile, revealing bright white teeth. “No, I just wanted to hear you say it.”

As I suspected. He laughed.

“You’re welcome, Jessie,” he said, and leaned over to close the door.

I watched his Corolla drive away and tip-toed up the stairs. My little sister had ninja-hearing. No one would ever manage to break into our trailer before she called 911, but it made it really hard to sneak out—or in.

I opened the door only as wide as I needed to sidle through, and then closed it quietly, sealing it shut with my hand and thencarefully latching the lock. No guarantees my mom was even coming home. She didn’t always. Wouldn’t want anyone to break in and rob us of our Rent-a-Center TV in the meantime.

Then I walked down the hall to my right. If Allie’s door was closed, she was asleep—but if it was open a crack and if I could see light from inside like I could now—I inhaled, pushing it open, ready to give her a lecture about staying up too late again—but Allie wasn’t in her bed.

My heart leapt into my throat as I looked at the tangle of pink sheets. She’d been in her bed at some point in time— “Allie?” I spun around.

“M’in’here,” came a voice, from inside my bedroom.

My room was next door. I opened its door and saw her there by the neighbor’s omnipresent porch light that filtered through my blinds. She was in my bed with a fortress of stuffed animals around her. “I had a nightmare,” she announced.

I sat down at the foot of the bed. “You should’ve called me.”

“Didn’t want to get you into trouble.”

“Well, I’m home now—go back into your own bed,” I reached over and wiggled her legs. “It was a really bad nightmare, Jessie.” She sat up and scratched at her face. I could see the exhaustion in her eyes, she’d been fighting sleep for hours.

“The kind that if you talk about it, it gets better? Or the kind that if you talk about it, it gets worse?”

“Worse.”

“I hate those,” I said, kicking off my shoes. “But I’m home now. Everything’s fine. So get.” I made to tickle her toes through my blankets and she zipped her feet up out of reach.

“Only if you come to bed with me.”

“Allie—” I was disgusting. I always was when I came home from my job, but without Lacey there, I’d actually hustled a lot, and the layer of grease all over me was mixed with sweat.

“Please, Jesse? Pleaseeeee?” She squirmed beneath my sheets, knocking stuffed animals off the bed. She was at that stage of tired that there was almost no return from, and we both needed to be in bed before/if mom got home.

“All right, all right. Go get in your bed while I shower.”

I washed myself in the shower until the water went from murky to clear and by the time I was done Allie’d moved her army of stuffies back into her own room. I tugged on pajamas and pulled my phone out of the pocket of my discarded uniform before walking down the hall, hoping I’d find Allie already asleep.