He inhaled, slowly blinking his eyes back open. “Oh.”
“Hi.”
“Oh, man. Sorry. I was just going to sit down and rest a moment. Vadika was talking to me, I think …”
“It’s fine. Come on, big guy. Get up.”
“Are we going back to campus?”
I shook my head, extending my hand. “Just come on.”
He took my hand without question. His skin was warm, and all of him was rumpled. He grunted as he stretched out his leg, knee hinging back and forth as he took a few steps with me toward the stairs. If anything, Ryan was still half-asleep until we made it to the top. I put a finger to my lips for him to be quiet, and he mimicked the same motion to let me know he understood.
Gertie’s door was closed, but I was never rude when she put me up.
Even when that included me and someone else now.
I paused after another step, looking between the half dozen doors. At the end of the hall was Gertie. Ana lived here almost as much as I did. She stayed in the room near the front of the house, looking over the street where the roof bent around the doorway. The other rooms were almost always open. Ryan could very well choose any of them and call it his for the night. Forever, by how Gertie took to him.
“What are you doing?”
I put my finger back to my lips again. Before he could make any more noise, I pulled him directly into my room and shut the door behind us. He stood near the door while I maneuvered through the darkened room, reaching for the bedside lamp. The bulb flickered before it held steady. The light coated the space in a cool-yellow glow, and the sound was the hum of the river outside through the bay window.
I’d stepped into another world when I locked myself inside this room. Turning back around, I watched as Ryan scanned the space, much like he had my dorm room.
“Wow,” Ryan whispered. “Is this your room?”
“Sort of. When I spend the night with Gertie it is.”
“I think I like this room at the house better. You know, more than your other one.” He tilted his head up in the direction of the window toward campus.
“Really?”
He started to wander around, making himself at home. “It’s more you. This whole place is.”
I thought about the difference between this space and the dorm room I’d tried to decorate. Most of it was under my bed in storage after a few too many threats from Natalie in the first few weeks. Even if she was warming up to me, I didn’t believe that extended to my many objects that made the space the opposite of any minimalist’s dream.
Ryan looked around, picking up the books I’d left, and smiled down at my new book of shadows I had left beside the window seat along with my book bag when we first arrived at the house with nothing but a mission. Still, he didn’t touch it, knowing well enough now what it was.
This room was me, in a sense. What could be.
“Let me just get this straight. One more time.”
I waited.
“She really wants to give you this whole place?” Ryan asked.
“Yeah. Sort of.”
“Is it because she doesn’t have kids of her own?”
I shrugged. “Probably. Gertie has never been a strict legacy person. It’s not my story to tell, but she didn’t have the best life, growing up. Then, she found a place like this for a while. She decided to make it her own. She wanted somewhere safe for us all, so …”
“She wants someone who appreciates it as much as she does to take over.”
I nodded.
“You love this place.”
