“Yay! I’m even more excited now. I can’t wait for the ball, though. I want to meet all your friends.”Friends?I don’t have the heart to tell her I haven’t made any friends, unless you count what Aspen and I are doing as being friends. Which I don’t.
“Ren told me he has no date to the ball. What about you, Q? Are you taking someone?” Luna asks curiously.
“If it wasn’t for you guys being here, I wouldn’t go to the stupid ball in the first place. So no, I’m not planning on bringing anyone else just to bore them to death.”
“Nonsense,” my father interjects, and I can tell from the gleam in his eyes whatever he is going to say isn’t going to be something I want to hear. “It will be good for business. I’ll find someone for you to take.”
Great. Just when I thought this couldn’t get any worse, I’ve gone and stuck my fucking foot in my mouth.
* * *
“I’ll sleep on the couch,”Scarlet insists. “You can sleep in your bed.”
“Okay.” I smile, handing her a pillow and a blanket.
I watch as she makes her bed on the couch and crawls under the blanket, wearing pajamas covered in pink hearts and little owls. I already know she’s gonna come and crawl into my bed, but I’ll let her have her way. She hates sleeping in places she doesn’t know, and every time we are someplace new, she ends up in my bed, not wanting to sleep alone.
I’ve told her many times just to come and sleep in my bed, but every time, she insists that it will be different now and that she is not a little girl anymore.
I’ll believe it when I see it. “All right, good night. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Good night.” She smiles at me, pulling the blanket up to her chin.
Luna and Ren are already in bed, and Luna had no trouble admitting she wanted to sleep in her brother’s room.
Walking into my room, I get ready for bed as well, brushing my teeth and stripping out of my clothes down to my boxers before I climb into bed.
Looking up at the ceiling, I lie awake in bed for so long I wonder if Scarlet actually did fall asleep on the couch. That idea is proven wrong when the door cracks open, and Scarlet tiptoes into my room.
I can’t hide a grin when she climbs into my bed and slips under the blanket, settling on the other side of the bed.
“What if I wake up in the middle of the night and don’t know where I am in my sleepy brain. It would probably freak me out.”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Then I would be screaming and waking up everyone. I just don’t want to wake you guys up in the middle of the night.”
“That’s very considerate of you. Just don’t snore so loud.”
“I do not snore!” Scarlet whisper-yells.
We both chuckle, knowing that she does snore even though it’s only a cute, quiet snore that I may have recorded on my phone before to tease her with. The room falls into silence after a while, and I close my eyes, trying to get at least a few hours of sleep.
“I miss her.” Scarlet’s small voice cuts through the quiet night.
“Me too,” I admit.
I hardly think about Adela, let alone talk about her. It just hurts too badly, and it’s easier to pretend she isn’t dead. Like she’s gone on a vacation and will return home when she’s ready.
“This is the first time we’re together somewhere without her, in public, I mean. Someone is going to ask questions, don’t you think? What are we going to tell people when they ask why she’s not here?”
“I don’t know.” I have no fucking clue. “We have to tell people at some point. I don’t know why Dad is so adamant on keeping it a secret.”
“Maybe because telling people will make it real…”
It’s already real, I want to tell her, but I bite my tongue. I still don’t know if that’s my father’s reason, but I do know Scarlet has a point. People will wonder where Adela is, and I am not sure how to answer that.
I’m not sure if I want to answer it either.