He curled it into his chest and mean-mugged me. I considered kicking him.
“I hate to inform you. Whatever was in here has evolved beyond food.”
“You letting air in the container probably just made it worse!”
“Oh, my bad. Were you trying to conserve this? Are you planning on starting a fungal uprising?”
I let out a whine. “Hirooo.”
“Tell me what it used to be, and I’ll give it back.”
I folded my arms over my chest.
He started to whistle like he had all the time in the world.
I flung my arms open and shouted, “It’s one of the cookies you left!”
Shock slapped his face, and he cracked the lid to look again. “Thatused to be a cookie?” Helooked up and whispered, “I think it just blinked at me.”
A laugh bubbled out of me. I couldn’t help it. He was just so stupid.
But in the best way.
After securing the lid, he put the container back in the box. “I left those for you to eat.”
“I ate the other ones.”
“But not that one.”
I said nothing.
He looked back at the box. “You kept the notes I left both times in the motel. Is that some of the money I left too?”
Unable to speak, I just nodded.
His eyes strayed around the room, landing on the purple backpack against the wall at the corner of my bed.
The room swelled with something. Something suffocating and warm but alsoalive.
“What else did you keep, Pip?” he rasped.
“Everything,” I whispered.
“My hoodie and shirt?” he asked.
I went to the closet, which no longer had a door, and pulled out the black hoodie and tugged it over my head. It was long enough that it concealed my naked frame. Then I pointed to the T-shirt and held up the black socks.
“What about the ghost?”
I felt the weight of his stare with every step I took, skin tingling with the electricity buzzing in the room. My legs bumped the side of the mattress. Without looking at him, I grasped the blanket on the mattress and pulled it back.
There, lying in the center of the bed, was the ghost plushie, more worn than when he first left it but no less precious to me.
He moved quickly, lifting me right off the floor so my feet dangled in the air. Worried, I glanced at his bandaged arm, but he made a rough sound, calling me back.
“You sleep with that?” he asked low.
“Every night.”
