Thea appeared not to have heard her, having a selective hearing problem which strangely only manifested when she chose to ignore whatever Bryce had said. “Did you know either of the victims, Peter?”
Peter snorted beneath his beak. “AmIa suspect now? Does that mean I can be on the podcast?”
“Ignore her,” sighed Bryce. “I do.”
Thea stuck out her tongue churlishly and gathered her newspapers. “I guess no milkshakes tonight.”
“I need to go home to make sure Liv hasn’t snuck out or stocked the house with beer again, anyway.”
“You need assistance?”
Bryce almost wanted to say yes, but Thea didn’t always make the whole parenting thing easy. She brought out the child in Bryce, and that made it difficult for her to be the adult figure that Liv needed. That, and Bryce didn’t like it when Thea saw that side of her. When she was with her best friend, she could still find some remnants of her fun self rather than the stern, bossy, anxious mother she had to be around Liv. After the mess she’d been last night, she had no intention of subjecting Thea to that again. Perhaps a small, insecure, awful part of her was afraid that if she did, if she kept on this way, Thea would grow tired of her. They were so different in so many ways. How much longer could they sustain their mismatched friendship?
“No, I’m good,” she decided finally. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
If Thea minded, she didn’t show it. Instead, she nodded and waved, wishing Bryce a goodbye that was not extended to Peter. An announcement from Gus over the loudspeaker rang out above the spilling coins and gaming theme music, alerting the customers to the fact that the arcade was due to close and the police-enforced curfew began tonight. If nothing else, it at least gave Bryce an excuse to get out of work early, though she knew it was selfish to be glad of anything after two people had died.
“You disappeared last night,” Peter said, as she began taking down the deflated bags of cotton candy stored behind her.
Right. She’d forgotten about that. “Yeah. I drank too much and Thea had to take me home. Sorry. I was so out of it I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye.” It was only half a lie.
“No worries,” he brushed off. “Glad you got home okay. I had fun with you, though. Maybe we could do it again sometime?”
She winced. “I think for the sake of my own liver, that wouldn’t be a good idea. I have awful acid reflux from those Franken-lime cocktail thingies you kept buying me.”
Chuckling, Peter slipped off his albatross hat. Comically, his head looked the size of a pea against the oversized feathery costume body below his neck. “No worries. Message received.”
Bryce forced a thin-lipped smile, turning to take the confectionary into the back room, but Peter’s voice pulled her back again.
“Hey, Bryce?”
She cocked her head expectantly.
“Is something going on between you and Thea? Are you like… together?”
Heat rushed to Bryce’s face, heart plummeting through her stomach, her legs, her feet, the floor holding her up. Why would he think that? Why wouldanyonethink that? Had Bryce done something,saidsomething, to give people the wrong idea? Had she gone too far? Been too affectionate?
She tried — and failed — to keep her tone neutral as she replied, “No. We’re just friends. Why?”
“No reason. I guess I’m just reading into things.”
Reading into things. Exactly. Peter was just reading into things. Things that didn’t exist.
But as Bryce made her way into the staff corridor, she wondered why her panic had risen so readily if that was true. Had he noticed something last night? Bryce’s jealousy when she’d found Thea talking to Heidi, maybe?
It didn’t feel like he was just reading into things. It felt like Peter had seen right through the tinted glass wall Bryce kept herself shielded behind. It felt like she’d been put on display, exposed, revealed. It felt like her guard had shattered, walls crumbled.
And no matter how many times she repeated, “We’re just friends,” to herself as she got ready to leave, it still sounded like a poorly executed lie to her own ears.