“I’m going to say this as kindly as I possibly can. Not everything is about you.”
She stares at me and the line of her mouth turns into a twisted scowl. “You’re right. I’m being an asshole. That’s usually his thing.”
“I swear to god, Jessica.” Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and start to count to ten.
I only get to three before she apologizes. “Sorry. I’msorry. He’s justsuchan asshole.”
“Knowing why he acted like that doesn’t make it any easier to forgive?”
“If you knew the stuff he said to Trench… You’d understand why forgiving him isn’t high on my priorities.”
“Fine, I get that it’s hard to deal with that, but maybe, for my sake, you go ahead and don’t try to beat him at that game?”
“Fine,” she says, and italmostdoesn’t feel like she’s mocking me. “I’ll try because I love you.”
“And you’ll stop thinking vicious things at him?”
She doesn’t look happy about it. Her shoulders drop, but she nods. “Yeah.”
“Good.” I’ll ask for more from her… but later. After she’s used to us four.
ARC
Whatever Chrys said to her sister, Jess’ thoughts don’t eventouch on me when she returns.
It makes her the exception.
The others have plenty of opinions.
I don’t look right today. I’m too quiet. Maybe we’re lying to them and Chrys only bonded to Shock and Risk. I’m too still. I’m too fidgety. Why is Shock touching me like that?
Even Shock and Risk’s are laced with concern.
Only Hazard’s thoughts give me any real reprieve, but they rarely leave Hannah, so there’s nothing abnormal about that.
When Chrys comes back, straight to me, the roulette of pity, suspicion, and even irritation starts all over again.
The way she smiles, the way she kisses me,thatchanges the tone of some of those thoughts, but not all.
When Cindy’s weeun starts to fuss, Hazard gets up and comes to sit on my other side. That’s a first.
“If any of you ever decide you want to get something to match, let me know. I’ll send you the name of the shop I went to.”
Before this moment, I didn’t know Hazard had a tattoo.
“Thanks. We’ll keep that in mind.”
He smiles at me and then winks at Chrys.
“Tomorrow,” she whispers. “I am going to start learning Sianese tomorrow.”
Trying not to smile too much, I whisper back, “He offered to give us a tattoo studio recommendation.”
“Oh!” She didn’t know we could get tattoos. Her thoughts immediately go to a tattooed-Sian feature for Playlien. And then they fracture in a dozen different directions and I let the kaleidoscope of them distract me from everyone else.
Kimba starts the meeting and the other brothers are distracted, so I don’t have to be.
The acknowledgement of our bond is quick enough that it barely influences their thoughts.
