When she dared to look at the TV again, she saw the generic-looking reality stars. No more dead or discarded girls.
Gradually, her heart came down from its overexcited state. The women grinned from ear to ear before dimming their shine and demurely accepting the single stems. She envied them.
They hadn’t fallen for a monster.
“I swear this season gets better with every rewatch.” Instead of waiting 10 seconds for autoplay, Liza clicked the button to start the next episode. The recap began and she fixed Kenna with narrowed eyes. “So, I noticed you got a car?”
“I’m not sure if it’s mine, technically. It’s more of a loan.”
Liza quirked a square brow. “Right. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m glad the first week of class is over with. Too much time wasted. How’s your new, fancy off-campus job?”
She pasted on a smile though the inquiry inspired her to flee to her bedroom and not emerge until Monday. Every conversation with Liza since she’d asked about her feelings toward Dayton felt like dodging bullets.
“It’s going alright, so far.”
“Where is it again?”
“A clinic over in East Haven.”
She nodded. “Good experience.”
In a futile attempt to drown out her guilt, Kenna focused on the mindless show. Sweat collected in her palms as if she’d lied under oath. But she had not lied.
True, Liza wasn’t aware of the whole picture, but the glimpse she’d spared hadn’t been illusory.
Selectivity and omission were not the same.
Her phone rang and startled both girls. It was facedown on the couch between them and she prayed with everything she had thatDr. Merinowasn’t written across the display. She flipped it over and dread of a different kind took hold.Home. It continued its ringing while she held it in her hand and regarded it with a blank stare.
Her father facilitated any and all calls out of their home and she didn’t feel like hearing his hoarse smoker’s voice, even if it was only for a few seconds as he passed the phone to whoever had requested to dial.
The phone continued to ring.
Frowning, Liza looked at it, at her, and back again.
“Aren’t you going to get that? Isn’t it your family? What if it’s an emergency?”
A pinging notification signaled a new voicemail. Kenna swiped to delete it. Unheard. The operating procedure had worked fine the last year. She didn’t have to panic over follow-up texts because her parents didn’t believe in the evil that was cell phones. They still had a trusty rotary back on the farm. ‘Built to last,’ they’d always said.
Kenna tossed her cell onto the coffee table and it landed with athunk. Eyes glued to the television, she mumbled, “Their emergencies stopped being my responsibility a long time ago.”
Liza maneuvered into a criss-cross pose on the cushion. “That would never fly in my family. My mom expects a call from me at 7 p.m. on the dot. Every day. Even if I’m out with friends, I have to slip away and give her a call. She’s a little overbearing.”
“A little?” A corner of Kenna’s mouth lifted.
She didn’t mind listening to her roommate ramble about her relationship with her family, so long as Liza didn’t expect her to do the same.
“All three of us are away at college, so my mom has us on a schedule. After me, my older brother calls at 7:15 and my younger brother at 7:30. Sometimes, we have a group call without her afterward and complain to each other.”
“I always wanted a brother.” Kenna hadn’t realized she whispered it until it was too late.
So much for not sharing anything.
She started braiding her thick mane of hair like they were BFFs mid-sleepover and not two college students who’d entered the mutually beneficial financial agreement of sharing an apartment. “You have sisters, then?”
“Five.”
“Five? How did your parents survive that?”