Page 85 of His White Moonlight
“Don’t do that again,” I said when he opened the door.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t like it.”
“Why?”
I turned my head to look at him.“You don’t need to figure me out, Bennett.You just need to get along with me until September.”
“September?”he asked, starting the car.
“The end of August, technically.That’s move-in day for the dorms, which you’ll hear about tonight.Mom said she was going to send you the address for our college-talk dinner.”
He pulled out of the garage and didn’t say anything until we reached the parking garage at work.
“What do you want to go to school for?”
The question shocked me so much that I turned to stare at him for a second.No one had ever asked what I wanted to do in the future.
“Interspecies social worker,” I said.
“Really?I would have thought finance.Your math grades qualify.”
“Being good at something doesn’t mean it’s your passion.”
“And interspecies social worker is your passion?”
“There are a lot of kids out there struggling to fit into families of different species.Helping them adapt and not feel so alone, different, or maybe even unwanted, calls to me a lot more than sitting in an office, searching expense lists for overspending.”
He got out, and I was quick to unbuckle before he opened the door for me.Instead of stepping back so I could get out, he leaned down to look into the car at me.
“Is that how you felt?Alone?Unwanted?”
“Seven years, Bennett.I was sent away for seven years.Who wouldn’t feel alone and unwanted?”
I wished I could smell what he was feeling because his expression gave nothing away as he looked down.But he was so still, like a predator hiding from its prey so that the prey wouldn’t startle and run away.I was afraid to move.
No more running away from me.
Before the panic could set in, he stepped back and let me out.We didn’t talk on our way up to the main lobby.
Walt was waiting at the elevator bank, along with two dozen other people waiting for their turn.
“Good morning,” he said when he saw me.He gestured to my neck.“Looks a little better today.”
“Ten hours of sleep works like magic.”
“Impressive.”
I smiled.“It was.”
Ten was unheard of for me.But since coming home, I’d been sleeping more deeply—obviously, since Bennett managed to move me—and longer.Even though I’d been displaced and ignored, I still felt safer there at the big house than I had at school.Hopefully, the change in my sleep meant I was putting everything that happened at school behind me.The idea of swinging at Sophia for waking me up, just as I had done for Bennett, was worrying.
Bennett’s fingers brushed mine, interrupting my thoughts.I lifted my hand and smoothed my hair back to avoid his touch.
The elevator doors in front of Walt opened.
“Hope you have a good day,” I said.
