Page 25 of Serpent In White
“Well, I’ll leave you boys to get to know each other.” Kara pats Darian on the back. “Dinner will be ready in about an hour.”
She leaves the room, and he watches her go. As soon as she’s audibly downstairs, he turns to me. “She seems alright.”
“She’s fine, I guess.” I shrug. “Kind of stupid, if you ask me.”
He laughs. It almost makes me smile, but then I remember I don’t do that and put it away.
“Why is she stupid?”
“Because she’s willingly married to that asshole.” I nod toward the doorway.
“Dan?” He removes his backpack and sets it down on the cot.
“Yea. He’s a prick.”
“Wow. So you don’t really like anyone, huh?” He glances at me in between pulling miscellaneous stuff out of his backpack.
I think about what he just asked me for a second. It’s not that I don’t likeanyone, it’s just that I haven’t met anyone worth liking yet.
“I just don’t like them,” I mutter, plopping down onto my bed.
“What happened to your parents?” Darian asks, and I decide I like him.
I like him because he’s talking to me. And asking aboutme. No one ever does.
“Mom’s dead. Dad’s in jail. He killed her,” I answer, in my usual unfazed tone. “What about yours?”
“My mom’s dead, too. She overdosed on drugs.” He looks down at his shoes. “I never knew my dad.”
“They’re overrated,” I tell him, and his eyes dart up to mine. “Parents.”
“I was hoping Dan would be a good dad,” he says softly, and you can really hear that hopefulness. I feel bad that he’s striking out once again in the father department.
“I hate to break it to you, but he sucks.” I flop backward on the bed and stare up at the cracks in the ceiling.
I hear Darian shuffling around for a few seconds, but I don’t look up until he says, “Did you give me your pillow?”
I sit up on my elbows. “Yea. I didn’t know you were gonna bring your own.”
“Thanks.” He grins, then stomps over to my bed, holding out his pillow. “Trade?”
I stare at him for a minute, wondering if he’ll actually be a brother to me, or if he’s just acting nice now, and once we get into school and he becomes more popular than me, he’ll pretend I don’t exist. I really hope not, because he seems cool.
He seems like he could be my brother.
I take the pillow from him and stuff it under my head. It has a different smell than mine, obviously because it’s his. And as weird as it is, I kind of like it.
Darian, my brother…
I’ll have to protect him. I almost don’t have a choice.
Oh God.
Oh God, oh God holy crap.
What the fuck...
I blink and shake my head for the fiftieth time, climbing down from the bush I nearly fell out of a few minutes ago.
