Now, lying alone in bed, she felt so cold.
Her father had visitors tonight. She could hear them through the wall, knocking back drinks and talking. Tiernan and Fintan were included in the meeting. Tiernan even spoke a few times. She was secretly angry with him for adapting so quickly. He slid right into the family like he’d grown up with their father and older brother. He’d even adopted their stupid accent!
Tiernan and Fintan were invited to all of her father’s meetings.
Not her. She never fit in anywhere. Like an old puzzle piece curled at the edges, no natural place existed for her in the family.
Sick with jealousy, she curled into a ball under her duvet and drifted in and out of sleep.
An hour later, she woke up slicked with sweat and with a scream in her throat. She had had a nightmare. Again.
They were on top of her.
Laughing.
Unbuckling.
Kicking.
Slapping.
Putting their things in her.
She thrashed and made a choking sound, fighting off her duvet before opening her eyes and remembering where she was.
She felt a presence in the room and stirred awake.
“T—Tiernan?” she croaked.
A shadow glided into the room, closing the door behind it.
Taller and broader than her brother.
Someone who smelled like burning wood and old leather, not Irish Spring and mint.
A boy.
Although it was too dark to make out his features, something told her he was more or less her age.
She rose to her forearms, her heart still thundering inside her chest. What was he doing here? What did he want from her?
She wanted to ask but couldn’t. Damn her useless brain!
She blinked. He didn’t. In fact, he didn’t move at all.
He was so, so still. And so, so beautiful. Like those kids you see in glamorous American TV shows. His eyes were so dark she could see her own reflection in them. She wanted to drown in them and never come up for air.
He stepped toward her, clasped the edge of her duvet, and slowly slid it up her body. That was when she realized she was shivering. Her skin was covered in gooseflesh.
She wasn’t scared. Maybe because she could still hear Tiernan through the wall.
Her brother would never let anything bad happen to her.
The boy rearranged the duvet over her, fidgeting nervously, then reached beyond her shoulder, picking up a book from her bed and placing it on the nightstand beside her. He refused to look at her now, eyes stuck on his shoes, like they fascinated him.
“I just…um, you seemed cold,” he muttered.
She didn’t understand what he said.
