“I’m not alone. Dennis is here. Go have fun. I’ll be fine.”
She eyed me for a minute before deciding I was being honest and finally agreeing. We walked down thehalluntil she disappeared into Sean’s room, then emergedwith her keys and favorite purse in hand.
“You’re leaving things in his room now?”
“Shutup.”She glanced past me, where Dennis could most likely hear us. “You’re positive you don’t wanna come?” She waited for confirmation before saying, “Alright. I’ll be back in a couple hours. Love you.”We hugged before entering the living room.“Bye, Dennis.”
“Bye.”He looked up from a book to acknowledge her in a normal way for once.
“Make sure she’s okaywhile I’m gone, yeah? That she doesn’t do anything. I normally ask my dad when I leave if she’s visiting, but he’s not here, so…”she trailed off when Dennis didn’t say anything.
He was watching me, his darkened eyes full of something I couldn’t decipher.I pretended not to notice and played with Frankie’s arm instead.She was right. It was best not to leave me alone like this.
“Yeah,”hesaid.“I’ll be here.”
“Thanks.” She smiled and said one last goodbye before leaving.Footstepsechoed past the pool untiltheyjerked backward.“Fuckingshit, Sean! What are you doing? You can’t just pop up in front of me like that, I was trying to walk here!”
He laughed and dodged the sound of her swinging purse.
“Did you really think you were going all by your lonesome? Someone might kidnap you.”
“Okay, fine. But you’renotdriving.”
“Cool. I wanna meet your friends. Are they all as cute as you, or do the rest of them act normal?”
The sound of their conversation drifted past vampire earshot. I turned to sit but nearly fell from dizziness. I braced a hand against the wall to catch myself. Dennis was already halfway up, but I motioned for him to sit back down.
“I’m okay.Just beingclumsy.”
“What’s wrong now?”He setthe book aside when I didn’t move.“You look like you’re about to cry.”
“Nothing’s wrong, I’m just happy. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done.”I sat beside him, placing Frankie on my other side.“This means so much to me. I don’t think I could even tell you.”I wrapped my arms around him, playing with his soft hair.
“You’re still not really happy, are you?”
“I’m kinda happy, but at the same time I’m not. If you know what I mean.”I wasn’t making sense. No one ever knew what that meant.
“I know what you mean.”
“Really? You’re the only person who gets it.”I let go to smile at him.
“Yeah, because I can feel it. I don’t know how you always forget about that.”
“Right.”My smile dropped. “Can we watch a movie?”
“Let me guess, cartoons?”
“Of course. You’ll watch with me, right? Ari isn’t here to cheer me up, so this time it’s your job.”I grabbed the remote toscroll through options.
“If it’ll make you happy.”His voice was unenthusiastic, but it didn’t deter me.
I chose a movie and settled in, playing with hisfingersin one hand and holding Frankie in the other. I was happy with the movie but Dennis was staring elsewhere, toying with his lip ring while lost in thought.
“What’re you thinkin’ about?”
“Did you ever drink before everything happened yesterday?”he asked. I shook my head.“We should go drink. You’ll start getting weak. That’s probably why you’re dizzy.”
“I’m not feeling weak.”I pulled him down when he tried to stand. My head was suddenly pounding—I couldn’t think about outside without panicking.
