Page 21 of Belonging to Them

Hands on my hips, I stare him down until he sighs, shrugs, and continues toward his apartment.There, he unlocks the door and goes inside.“Wait here—I just need to put some things away.”

I exchange looks with Cora and Squid.Both of them look irritated.

“I’ll go in first,” Squid says.

I don’t argue with him.I don’t believe Tommy’s apartment could be dangerous to me in any way, especially since he didn’t know I was coming, but better safe than sorry.Squid and Cora are the professionals.

Tommy opens the door, and Squid says, “I’m going to make sure it’s safe for Ella.”

Tommy eyes Squid’s black pants and shirt, his mirrored sunglasses propped on his head, his cropped-short red hair, and don’t-fuck-with-me stare.

“Yeah, sure,” Tommy says.“There’s nobody else here.”

Cora and I wait in silence by the door.Her gaze flits every which way.After a long minute, she says, “I had a brother.Tommy reminds me of him.”

“Had?”I ask quietly.

“Overdosed.But not before he tried to take everyone down with him.He couldn’t help it.Not sure he wanted to, a lot of the time.”

“I’m sorry,” I say.

“I used to be mad,” she says with a shrug, her focus still moving around the apartment complex, alert for any danger while she speaks.“I had to decide, though, at one point, that he couldn’t bring me down, too.Hardest thing I ever did was ignore his calls.”

I can only imagine.I say, “I’ve written off Tommy a few times, too, but maybe I’m weak, because I keep coming back.”

“It isn’t weak.Neither response is,” she says.“But I had to figure out where a line had to be drawn, before he took everything from me.”

She doesn’t say anything else.This is her roundabout way of giving advice.

“Thank you,” I say.

“Welcome.”

The door swings open and Squid says, “It’s clear.”

Cora says she’ll wait outside and Squid asks if I want privacy.“I can stay in here or wait outside if you want.”

“Some privacy would be good,” I say.He comes out, and I go inside and face my brother.

Tommy looks…perfectly fine.Better than usual, actually.His blue eyes aren’t bloodshot and his face isn’t puffy with fatigue and strained with anxiety like it was the last few times I’ve seen him.He looks like he’s been remembering to eat, too.And his apartment is actually not the total pigsty I expected.I wonder if he enlisted Squid’s help in tidying it right before I came in.

“Where have you been?”I finally ask.

“Uh…here.”

“This whole time?”

“What do you mean, this whole time?”He looks to the side.The dickhead is being shifty as fuck.

“You said you were going on a trip or something.Did you even leave?”

“Nah, I changed my mind.”

“Are youfucking kidding me?”I shout.

He holds his hands up in front of his face.“Dude, E, relax.”

“I cannot relax when I was worried sick.I got anote, you idiot, written with black marker…”