I consider this.
"And after she leaves? We go back to you ignoring me?"
Something shifts in his expression. A crack in the mask.
"I don't know," he says quietly.
I pull my knees up to my chest. Wrap my arms around them.
"What time does she arrive?"
"Ten."
"And you're telling me this now because...?"
"Because I couldn't—" He stops. Starts again. "Because I needed to warn you. And I didn't know how to do it during the day. When everyone's watching."
"So you snuck into my room like a creep."
"I didn't sneak. I wheeled."
Is that... a joke?
I stare at him.
The corner of his mouth twitches. Just barely. Almost imperceptible.
But I see it.
"That's not funny," I say.
"It's a little funny."
"It's really not."
But I'm fighting a smile now.
I glance at the clock. 2:17 AM.
"Well," I say. "I'm not going back to sleep now."
Bruno frowns. "What?"
"I was having a perfectly good dream about being anywhere but here, and now I'm wide awake."
"That's not my problem."
"You made it your problem when you wheeled into my room like some kind of nocturnal stalker."
His jaw tightens. "I told you. I knocked."
"And then you sat there. Watching me sleep." I shake my head. "That's creepy, Bruno. That's objectively creepy behavior."
"I was waiting for you to wake up."
"By staring at me?"
"What was I supposed to do? Shake you?"
