Rubi zipped his mouth and wandered off.
I stayed on the crate, caught between the nightmare he and Saint had made me contemplate, and this giddy and alien happiness that didn’t quite feel real, no matter how hard I clung to it.
Folk’s message was still unanswered.
I opened it again and frowned at it, typing and retyping until I gave up and went with the truth.
Decoy:if u get any hotter i’ll fuckin die
I spent the rest of the day counting the hours till I picked up Ivy from school and Folk came home to join us. The wagons were a mess. It took all afternoon to organise them to be ready for the road, but I didn’t mind. It kept me busy, my mind occupied with unpicking the absolute chaos of River’s.
At half-three, I waved Cam and Rubi off on their run. They’d be gone a few days, but it felt like longer. I’d grown used to Cam’s sporadic presence, but Rubi was a constant in my life. In Ivy’s life. It never felt right when he was gone.
Actually, nothing felt right. I trudged to my car with a tight chest and crawling skin, and I didn’t fucking get it. With Ivy ten minutes away from my arms and last night with Folk playing on a loop in my head, I should’ve been walking on air, but I drove to the school with the sensation of a sledgehammer hanging over my head.
I parked, trying to shake it off.
My phone buzzed.
Folk:Are you going straight home after school?
Decoy:no, ives wants to see orla
Folk:I can meet you at the MC around 6? Come home with you?
I typed a reply so fast I got cramp in my thumb.
Decoy:can’t wait x
I fired it into the ether with zero regrets.
He sent me back a picture of the dive watch he wore on his wrist and three words that healed all fucking wounds.
Folk:Two hours, baby x
The weight in my chest lifted, and I got out of my car with a smile on my face. Walked onto the school grounds with my head, finally, in the fucking clouds where it belonged.
Three minutes of bliss before Ivy’s teacher intercepted me outside the classroom. “Mr Greene? Can I have a word?”
Every stare in the near vicinity swivelled to me. I stepped forward. “Sure.”
The teacher gestured to the door and preceded me inside.
I followed her into a deserted classroom that smelled of socks and old bananas. “Is everything okay?”
The teacher said nothing for a moment. Just moved to another door and closed it. “Shall we take a seat?”
There was one adult chair in the room. I hadn’t had a mother to groom me into a gentleman, but I wasn’t about to make Ivy’s teacher sit in the teeny alternatives. Those fuckers were six inches off the ground.
I gave them a wide berth and leaned against a desk instead.
The teacher gave me a long look. “When I left that note in Ivy’s bag, the last thing I was asking you to do was cut all her hair off.”
“What?”
“Her hair, Mr Greene. Ivy’s been distressed about it all day, and her mother seemed very upset too.”
Static sounded in my ears. The table behind me dug into my back, every word the teacher spoke hitting me one at a time, syllable by syllable. “I don’t understand.”
