Page 105 of The Villain

He pinched my skin, and I yelped with a laugh.

We joined in on the basketball game, ate food, and lay on the loungers beside the pool until the sky darkened.

I was watching Starla and her friends play beer pong when Cian sat up and grabbed my hand. “Come on.”

“Come on where?”

“Just come with me.”

He led me into the house and up the stairs. When we reached the door to his apartment, I leaned against the wall. “Bedtime already?”

He punched in the code. When it unlocked with a beep, he held the door open for me. “Just get in.”

I rolled my eyes, because I’d been enjoying the social time. Most of the crew trusted me now, and some of them seemed to genuinely like me. We’d shared stories, and they’d introduced me to their families.

I walked inside the apartment and then stopped dead. Because there was a glaring new addition. A glass tank sat on a metal stand in the middle of the floor. In the darkness of the apartment, the only light came from a fluorescent strip light on the mesh lid. It made the contents inside glow—a few green plants, a hollowed-out log, rocks, and a thick layer of dirt. Everything in the terrarium glistened with moisture. I crept closer and bent to peer inside. I didn’t know what to expect, but I couldn’t see any living creatures. Just leafy plants and a wet log. I looked over my shoulder at Cian, who stood with his hands on his hips. “What is this?”

He drew closer and pulled back half of the mesh lid, which opened on a hinge. He poked around in the dirt with a thick finger until he found what he was looking for. He reached into the dirt and scooped out a handful. He gently blew some dirt off the top of the pile, until a slimy blob remained behind, sitting on a mound of dirt. And when I saw what it was, my draw dropped. “What?”

His eyes shone brightly in the light, making them fluorescent blue. “It’s a Pacman frog. I did some research, and it’s illegal to make a native frog your pet. Not that legality is a hill I die on. But I didn’t think you’d want to do anything illegal with animals. So I went to a local pet store and talked to them about wanting to get you a frog. They recommended a Pacman. Neat name, huh? Because they look like the video game character.”

Cian didn’t usually say all that much at once, and his voice held a slight tremble, like he was nervous. I noticed that he hadn’t touched the frog at all, and that made my stomach flutter. “You… got me a frog?”

He blinked. “Yeah. I mean, he doesn’t do much. Not like you have to train it or anything?—”

I held out my hands. “Can I hold him on his dirt pile?”

He exhaled with a relieved smile. “Yeah.” We managed the transfer pretty well, so the little guy remained perched on his dirt pile and free from any oils on my hands. “They said you shouldn’t handle him too much because it can stress him out. But I wanted you to get a good look at him.”

He was the fattest, roundest, and ugliest thing I’d ever seen in my life, and I loved him immediately. His body was covered in brown and bright green stripes, and his little front legs turned in like a bowlegged cowboy. His throat pulsed in and out as he breathed. I closed my lips and pulsed my cheeks in time with his breathing until I laughed.

“Pacman frogs are from South America.” Cian pointed to a pamphlet on the coffee table. “The pet store gave me that, and I have a few YouTube videos they recommended we watch for care instructions.”

My heart was going to explode. My eyes burned. Was I going to cry over an amphibian?

“Oh.” He held up a finger and flipped on a light in the kitchen before opening the freezer. Reaching inside, he pulled out a Ziploc baggie full of little pink chunks. “He eats pinkies. Frozen baby mice. We just have to thaw them, and he snatches them right up.”

I stared into my frog’s bulging eyes. “I thought they mostly ate insects.”

“Yeah, me too.” He shrugged as he tossed the frozen baby rodents back inside the freezer next to our popsicles. “The more you know.”

I swallowed. “I’m going to put him back now.”

Cian came to stand next to the tank. “Yeah, sure.”

I carefully placed him and his dirt back in his tank and surveyed his set up with new eyes. He had plenty of space, and everything looked clean and fresh. “Did you do all this today?”

“Yeah, this afternoon while you were sleeping at the pool.”

“I wasn’t sleeping.” I closed the lid and rested a hand on top of the tank. “I can’t believe you got me a frog.”

Cian gripped my hip and rubbed his thumb on the skin above the waistband of my cartoon frog swim shorts. “Do you like him?”

“Cian, I’d die for him.”

His whole face lit up as he laughed. “What will you name him?”

I thought for a moment. “DeCi.” I said it likedeck-ee.