“To make sure animals don’t get in.” I opened the door and waved him in, following behind him.“Plus I think there are some rivalries between people in the other greenhouses. It was a whole thing a few months ago.”
“Woah, it’s uh… moist in here.” He shuddered.
I snickered. “Well, yeah. What did you expect?”
He shook his head as he walked behind me. “I don’t know, but I’m not a fan. I feel wet.”
“You get used to it,” I said as I took him to my plot. I stopped in front of my area and waved dramatically at the beautiful plant that had sprouted another flower in my absence. “Oh look, there’s two now!”
“What is it?” Kansas bent over and looked at it with a mild look of disgust on his face.
“It’s a bat flower. You know, because of how it looks.”
“I guess. Is it poisonous?”
“Yes and no. I’ll go with no.” I swatted him away as he pretended to lean forward to take a bite of it. “I’ve been trying so hard to get one to grow and I finally did it.”
“That’s great, Eisley.” Kansas stood. “I’m proud of you.”
I threw my arms around him. “You are? Thank you!”
“Well, hello,” a voice from behind us called out. Emi came toward us. “What’s going on here?”
“I was just showing Kansas my bat flower. What are you up to?”
She pointed behind her. “Me and the girls are about to head to the set and I wanted to check on my pumpkins.”
“Set?” Kansas asked, and my mood instantly fell.
Emi crossed her arms and nodded. “Yeah, we’re all going to be extras in that documentary about the Sinister Minister. You know, that creepy cult guy that killed all those people ten years ago.”
“I know who he is.”Kansas’s eyes darkened and his body stiffened beside me. I could feel the anger radiating from him.
“They still need people if you guys want to join us,” Emi offered. “Spencer won’t be there.”
I reached for his hand and tugged on it, silently pleading for him not to say anything. He ignored me.
“No, I’m good. I’d rather not exploit the victims for my fifteen minutes.”
She rolled her eyes. “You too? Well, I’ve got to go.” She glanced at her pumpkins and then started off, leaving us alone. As soon as she was gone, Kansas spun around.
“Were you going to go?” he demanded.
“No! I told her that. It’s disgusting.” I put my hands up in innocence.
“Have they asked you to talk to them?” He started off toward the exit, and I followed him.
“No, have they asked you?” I shot back.
“I got a letter. I told them to go fuck themselves.”
Kansas got a letter? Why hadn’t I?
“What did it say?” I asked as I locked the greenhouse and we started toward my car.
“Just that they wanted to speak to me as they wanted victims to come forward. It’s all bullshit.”
I had so looked forward to this weekend with Kansas, and it felt like at every turn, it was disastrous. And now he was leaving.We drove back to my place quietly with him simmering beside me. I wanted to say something, anything, to quell the storm raging inside, but I didn’t know what to say.We were going back up the steps when I saw something taped to my front door. A white envelope with my name on it.
