“Give me just a second? I have to call my … Tess.” The word mom just doesn’t cut it with me and her. Lumen raises her brows at me.
“My daddy’s a right-wing combat veteran with control issues and he doesn’t make me call home this much.”
“Trauma,” I say with a small shrug, and then I hit dial on Tess’ number. She answers right away.
“M—” Neither of us misses the wrong letter forming on the edge of her lips. She cuts it off quickly and redirects herself. “Dakota, how’s it going? Are you still at the Schaeffers’?”
A sudden fear cuts through me as I imagine her waiting outside, wanting to see or talk to me.
“Yep,” I reply carefully, unsure if I should just stop talking or try to make up an imagined activity. But then … even if I were really back at Danyella’s house, I wouldn’t tell Tess anything.
“Do you mind if I speak to her?” Tess replies, her tone putting me on edge. There’s a primness to it that makes me want to scream. She is really and truly in charge of me, but just because she controls me, that doesn’t mean I’ll want a relationship with her later.
With a sigh, I stand up and head over to where Danyella’s sitting on the grass, her shoes kicked off—I’ve noticed that she wears a different pair of shoes every day—and her ankles crossed. She glances up as I hand the phone over, fully aware that Tess can hear the music playing in the background. That doesn’t matter; we’re just as likely to be listening to music at Danyella’s place.
“This is Danyella Schaeffer speaking,” she says, all formal and shit. I find myself grinning as she nods her head and replies diligently. “Of course, Ms. Vanguard.” Another pause. “Okay, thank you.” She hands the phone back to me.
“Don’t forget to call me just before bed,” Tess reminds me as I roll my eyes to the sky.
“Sure.”
There’s a long pause there where I’m afraid she might say something horrible like I love you and I’ll be forced to sputter out a response. I give a hasty goodbye and hang up before she can get the chance. Danyella offers up a sympathetic look.
“At least she cares.” She pats the grass beside her, and I sit down. We were supposed to discuss the, uh, medial preoptic brain thingy or … something, but I’d rather not so I decide not to remind Danyella.
“Lumen asked me if I was really into her,” I admit, and Danyella turns to look at me, pushing her glasses up her nose and waiting for me to continue. My phone buzzes again, and I feel my heart rate speed up as I lift it to check. It’s from Parrish, again.
Whatever you said, you pissed her off. I’ll let you know if she leaves to head over there.
I smile for a brief moment at the idea of Parrish looking out for me, and then frown hard after. Why would he let me know about Tess if he didn’t think I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be? I glance over my shoulder to see Chasm leaning against the trunk of a tree with his phone in his hand, head bent over the screen.
“Well?” Danyella queries politely.
“Just a minute. I need to check on something.” With a sigh, I push up to my feet and move over to stand beside him. It only takes him a second to look up, and I reach out to pluck the phone from his hand.
Why would you even ask me that? is the most recent text from Parrish. The one before it, sent from Chasm’s phone says Do you like her?
Her? Who’s her?
“This isn’t about me, is it?” I ask as Chasm snatches the phone back with a slight curl of his lips. He looks like Parrish when he does that, and it bothers me. “It is about me. I knew it.”
“This isn’t about you,” he snaps back, shoving his hair back from his forehead and giving me a look. With his fingers playing in his hair, I take note of the tattoos that stop at his wrist. It’s like, he only has them in places where they could be hidden easily. Coincidence? “I’ve got a crush that you don’t need to know about.”
“Oh?” I ask, planting my hands on my hips. I can strike a fierce ass pose with my half-black and half-lime green hair. Gamer Girl Extraordinaire. “Why not? Because she is me?” I’m grinning as I ask, but not because I really think his crush is me. Not even.
“She’s pretty much the exact opposite of you,” Chas says, lifting both of his dark brows up and playing with one of his lip rings with his tongue. “Good grades, athletic build, outdoor interests. Not some Ashnikko simp with a crappy Twitch channel.”
