His hand wound around my wrist, gentle but firm. “Please stay.”
Ms. Makruhi popped her head around the corner. “Dessert shortly. Cake.”
“You like cake?” Fen asked.
“In any shape or form,” I answered. “Never met a cake I didn’t like.”
“You will love my cake,” Ms. Makruhi assured me. “Mikado. Very special. Fen’s favorite.”
Fen put his hands together as if praying and raised them to her. “The best. I’m going to eat half of it—prepare to see gluttony in action.”
Ms. Makruhi waved a hand, but she looked pleased.
We headed upstairs, and I got tours of both Ari’s and Ani’s rooms (a disaster and neat as a pin, respectively), and after puttering around a game room, we all headed into Fen’s old room.
“I actually need to grab something,” he mumbled, heading to a closet. “I’m only here once every few months, so I’ve got to nab stuff while I can.”
I looked around the room while the twins meandered freely. The bedroom was enormous compared to my quarters at the lodge. A double bed and small lounge area with a desk. A gaming chair and computer monitor, but nothing hooked up to it. The walls were covered in band posters and promo flats, probably from the record store. A lot of them were signed, which I guess was unsurprising. It was just strange to see them so casually pinned to the wall like it wasn’t a big deal.
A bass guitar sat in the corner by a beanbag along with an empty stand for a keyboard. And near me was a shelf filled with trophies and ribbons. Musical notes. I leaned closer to read the inscriptions. They were from grade school and junior high.
“You were in orchestra?”
He mumbled something from the closet, then stuck his head out to look at me. “Oh? Yeah.”
Ani plopped on his bed. “Don’t let him fool you. Fennec’s a virtuoso.”
“Nerd is more like it,” Ari teased.
I started to ask Fen what instrument he’d played, and whyhe’d quit, but shouting from outside the room captured all our attention.
Fen straightened from the closet. “Fuck.”
“Oh no,” Ari mumbled.
“Sneak out the side door,” Ani said, jumping off the bed. “I’ll cover for you.”
What was happening? Even as I thought it, I knew, because Fen dropped whatever it was that he was scrounging out of the closet.
Serj.
Fen held out his hand to me. “Come on. I’ll take you back home. We’ve got to go now.”
“I drove.”
“Fuck. I gotta go.” He strode to Ari and kissed his brother on his ear. “Bye, dum-dum.”
Ani raced to him and swung her arms around his neck like a monkey. “Be careful. Don’t die.”
“I’ll try,” he said, squeezing her tightly. “Don’t let him be an assbag to you guys, okay?”
I felt panicky, as if he were leaving me, too. But I also felt the urgency to get him out.
“What can I do?” I asked.
“Distract him,” he said. “Talk to him while I escape. Shit. My keys! I’ll have to sneak into the living room and race out. Hopefully he got dropped off and hasn’t seen the Jeep in the garage.”
“I’ll take you down,” Ani told me, and then to Ari: “You go with Fen and be the lookout.”
