“I met a producer outside the sandwich shop.”
“What’s a Hollywood producer doing at a sandwich shop?”
“They have to eat, dummy. Anyway, he’s making a film, and he said they’re casting an older teenage girl for the part, so I told him I was sixteen.”
“He believed it?”
“He believed these.” Nikki squished her boobs together.
I turned my head away, tapping out a beat on my knee.
“Stop interrupting me, jeez. What I was trying to say is, they already picked another girl, but the producer’s going to ask his partners if they can audition me instead.”
“Oh,” I said and kept drumming.
“Don’t you get it, Rory? I’m going to be famous, and that means someday I’ll buy us a big mansion in the hills. We can even get married if you want.”
“To you? No, thanks.”
“What? We’re not actually related, so it’s legal.”
“It’s gross. I’m not marrying you.”
“Fine. Whatever. You can still live in my mansion.”
“I don’t need to live in your mansion because I’m going to have one of my own… if I can get my drumsticks back.”
“They haven’t given them back yet? Those fuckers.”
“Nikki, you can’t swear like that.”
“Why? What are they going to do, kick us out? News flash: once you land in group homes, you never get out.”
“What? I don’t want to stay here. I hate this place. I want to go back to Patty’s. I wanna play ball with Riley.”
“You think Patty is your new family? That she loves you? You’re money to her, nothing else. Patty is not taking you back, Rory.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t go with you, and they aren’t going to separate us. It’s in our files. Besides, she already has new kids. She doesn’t want you around anymore.”
I hated when Nikki said stuff like that. She wasn’t nice to me like she used to be when we were younger. She used to take care of me and protect me. Now she was just mean most of the time.
“Maybe I don’t want it in my file anymore.” It was the first time I’d said the words out loud.
Nikki looked like she might cry. “You want to leave me?”
“No,” I lied. “I just don’t want to stay here.”
Nikki was quiet for a long time before she said, “If you leave me, I’ll have nothing. I might as well kill myself.”
“No!” I grabbed her arm. “You can’t.”
“Yes, I can. And I will. If you leave me, Rory, I’ll kill myself, and you’ll be all alone because no one loves you but me.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks. Nikki was all I had. She was all I’d ever have.
“No,” I cried. “I’m sorry.”
