“Thank you for helping them,” he said. “You didn't have to do that.”
“I wanted to.” I meant it.
He had his arms loosely crossed and his shoulder leaned against the doorframe and he looked good doing it.
“The degree,” he said. “Engineering. I want to go back and look that up.”
“Look it up?”
“You.” The corner of his mouth pulled up. “I want to see the picture.”
“There's no picture.”
“There's always a picture.”
“Soren—”
“Graduation gown, little hat, holding the certificate.” He was fully smiling now. “It exists somewhere and I'm going to find it.”
“I'll have it destroyed.”
“You will absolutely not.”
I held his eyes for a second. He held mine. The hallway was quiet except for the faint sound of the television through the closed door and somewhere below us a neighbour's dinner still smelling like cumin and garlic.
“Go home, Rook.” He smiled.
“Bossy.”
He laughed before going back inside. I heard the lock turn and then the sound of Poppy saying something and Soren answering and Micah's laugh coming through the door muffled and genuine.
I stood there for a second longer than I needed to.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
do not let her in
SOREN
Iwas elbow-deep in dish soap and questionable life choices when my phone started vibrating across the counter with enough violence to suggest the call was either urgent or from a telemarketer who really believed in their product. I dried my hands on a towel that had seen better days and grabbed it, expecting Talia asking me to pick up milk on my way to the store or June demanding to know why I hadn't responded to her text about next week's rehearsal schedule.
Instead, I saw Poppy's name on the screen, and my stomach dropped before I even answered.
“Hey, what's?—”
“Mom's here. She showed up at school during lunch and now she's following me down the street asking to talk and making a whole fucking scene about it.”
I was already moving, grabbing my keys off the hook and shoving my feet into shoes without bothering to tie them. “Where are you?”
“Corner of Fifth and Hamilton. I told her to leave me alone but she won't listen and people are staring and I swear to god, Soren, if she doesn't back off I'm going to lose my shit in public.”
“Stay on the line. I'm five minutes away.” I was out the door and down the stairs before I'd fully registered the decision to leave, my body already running on the same emergency autopilot that kicked in every time one of my siblings called with that particular edge in their voice. “Is she being aggressive or just persistent?”
“Persistent. Loud. Doing that whole wounded-mother routine where she acts like I'm being cruel for not wanting to have a heartfelt reunion in the middle of the goddamn sidewalk.” Poppy's voice cracked slightly on the last word, and I heard her take a breath to steady herself. “She keeps saying she just wants to talk. That she misses us. That we're her babies and she has a right to see us.”
Rage flared hot and immediate in my chest. “You don't owe her a conversation. You don't owe her anything.”
“I know that. But she's making it sound like I'm the asshole here, and half the people walking past are giving me dirty looks like I'm some ungrateful brat who won't talk to her poor mother.”
