Page 20 of Saving Sparrow
“He’ll be attending Locklier,” I said, gesturing for Quentin to pay up when he landed on my property. “He was homeschooled all his life, but he’ll be a senior too.” We’d spent the rest of the day cleaning our room and doing laundry. We relaxed in bed now, playing Monopoly.
“You win,” Quentin said. He didn’t have enough money to pay the rent.
“Oh, and he’s a Maasassin but doesn’t know it yet.” I boxed the game up and then dropped it onto the floor. I stretched my legs out so Quentin could rest his head in my lap.
“What else did you guys talk about?” he asked, and I filled him in on everything.
“Fuck, I feel bad for him.”
“Yeah, me too.” I sighed. “I gave him the entry code so he could come over whenever he wants.”
“He probably won’t use it.”
“Probably not,” I agreed. “But maybe the gesture made him feel wanted.”
“Yeah,” Quentin said absently.
I tunneled my fingers through his sandy blond hair. “Hey, where’d you go?”
Quentin exhaled. “My dad’s coming home tomorrow.”
My hands stilled.
“Olga told me.”
“Figures,” I huffed. My stepfather told us as little as possible because that meant he got to speak to us as little as possible too. Our communication usually filtered through the housekeeper. “Will he be here long?”
“No. A quick drop in before he’s off on another business trip.” There was always another business trip. Dylan probably had another homesomewhere, leaving us here to rot. He was gone way too often for that not to be true. We didn’t care enough to find out.
“Good. We should make sure we aren’t around when he shows up.”
“Fuck him.” Quentin looked up at me. “He won’t come to this side of the house anyway. He can’t stand being reminded of what he did to her.” And Quentin never hesitated to remind him.
He sat up abruptly, bringing his face close to mine. “He can’t like you more than me. I won’t be able to handle it.”
I blinked at the sudden transition back to Elliott. “We’ve only hung out with him twice.”
“You’vehung out with him twice. I don’t think he likes me.”
“He does too.”
Quentin didn’t look convinced.
“He seems sheltered, and you’re probably an overwhelming shock to his system. He’ll eventually see that you’re just a big teddy bear with daddy issues.”
“I am not.” Quentin leaned away, puffing out his chest comically. “I’m a badass football jock who’ll mess anyone up who fucks with you.”
I grinned up at him. “Yeah, but you’ll look like a teddy bear while doing it.” My grin morphed into a laugh when his jaw dropped.
“I’ll show you how much of a badass I am,” he threatened, tackling me to my back.
We wrestled until we fell onto the floor. Quentin brought out a side of me I needed. He reminded me that it was okay to be young, to play and have fun like no one else was watching. I loved my books, but sometimes I loved this even more.
Miguel
Now
I talked until my throat went dry, until each word uttered felt like tiny match strikes along my windpipe. I’d exerted myself to get the start of our story out, and there was still so much Sparrow hadn’t heard yet.
