I roll over, putting my back to the window.
“Noah!” Rue calls again. “I wanna go catch minnows! Please! My dad won’t let me go down to the water without someone going with me.”
I grit my teeth and then force myself from the bed, annoyance filling my chest. Why does she not get it? I already told her no. I don’t want to hang out with her right now. Can’t she take her sister or something?
“Noah,” her voice comes out in a whine on the other side. “Please.”
I rip the dingy, green curtains back, revealing little Rue, standing just outside with her blonde hair in a messy ponytail.
Her eyes meet mine, instantly lighting up. “Were you sleeping? You took forever. I got worried about you.”
I blink a few times. I’m pretty sure Rue is the only person who ever worries about me. “I’m fine,” I mutter, and then jimmy the window upward, using my good hand.
“Come on!” She jumps in to help, pushing it open. She’s pretty much vibrating in her shoes right now.
I climb through the opening, wincing as I accidentally use my bad hand. “You’re something else,” I try to laugh through it, but as soon as my feet hit the ground, Rue is on me, tugging at my forearm.
“Noah, what happened to your hand?” Rue peers up at me, catching my eye. “Why are you hiding it?”
“Nothing, Rue.” I try to angle my body away from her. “It’s nothing.”
“Let me see,” her voice tightens. “Now.”
With a heavy sigh, I let my arm drop, and then I hold it out for her to see. “It’ll heal.”
Her eyes go wide. “Noah…”
“It’s nothing.”
“What happened?” Her hand is over her mouth, her gaze bouncing from my fingers to my eyes.
“I didn’t do the dishes on time,” I force out the truth, while leaving out the part where I think my dad might have been drunk—or high—or something. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Yes, it is!” Rue chokes up, her eyes moistening as she carefully reaches out, her fingers delicately taking my hand. I brace for more pain, but she’s so gentle. She looks closer and then leans forward, placing a light kiss on the top of my hand.
It sets my thirteen-year-old head spinning.
“What was that for?”
“To help it get better,” Rue looks up at me. “And if that doesn’t make it better, then I’ll keep trying until something does make you feel better.”
My heart skips a beat in my chest. “I love you, Rue.”
“I love you, too.” She grins up at me. “You want me to kill ‘em?”
My eyes flutter open in the motel room, my heart squeezing in my chest. My mouth doesn’t feel like I ate a whole bucket of sand anymore, but my head does have a dull ache. I run a hand over my face, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and helping myself wake up.
I stare at the ceiling for a long time before I move, my mind filling with the painfully sweet memories of my childhood. Before the move. Before, Rue loved Matthew. Before she killed him and framed me.
I scoot out of the bed.
My gaze tracks through the room again until it lands on her, still sleeping quietly behind me. She’s curled on her side like she finally ran out of fight, one arm tucked under the pillow and the other stretched out into the space I used to occupy, like at some point she reached for me, and her hand came back empty without her even waking up to notice.
Her face is soft in a way I haven’t seen since all of this started, but even in sleep, there’s something tight between her brows, like her body doesn’t fully believe she’s safe enough to let go.
Like she knows better than her mind does.
My jaw tightens before I can stop it. “You always knew,” I murmur under my breath. I want to reach for her, but I hold back.
