Page 49 of Heartless Heathens
“Did you sleep well, Mina?” I asked her, placing a gentle kiss on her cheek that had her quickly turning an adorable shade of red.
She nodded perkily.
“Mina?” Reesa choked out in surprise.
Both Romina and Sonny whipped their heads back instantly to see who had said her name and Sonny’s face twisted in startled disbelief.
“Do we need to fix our security system? Apparently breaking into this chapel is somethinganyoneis capable of,” he said in annoyance.
“I’m Teresa. We haven’t formally met. Though not for lack of me trying,” she said, leaving her hand out for him to shake.
Sonny enjoyed being feared, but secretly he enjoyed the people who could stand their own against him. He took her hand in his grasp before giving her what she wanted.
“Sonny,” he told her.
“I fucking know,” she said and he frowned. “I’m here to meet the ghost.” She hopped over to me with excitement and stood in front of Romina before lowering down to her knees.
“Hey there,” she said cautiously as if she’d been trying to approach a scared animal.
“Don’t talk to her like that.” Sonny corrected her.
“Sorry, I just …didn’t know what to expect,” she explained to Sonny before looking back over at Romina. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Y-You have?” Romina answered meekly, like she wasn’t ready to share her equally curious personality with the girl in front of her.
“Everyone talks about you. We just didn’t realize you were real. A lot of people around here thought you were just a ghost when they’d see you up there. I would have broken you out a lot sooner if I knew you were locked up there.” She seemed disappointed in herself, like the strings of her morals were tugging tightly at her from this whole thing.
Romina didn’t respond.
“Those are my clothes you’re wearing,” Reesa chirped, Romina didn’t say anything.
“You should say thank you,” I mumbled in her ear.
“Thank you,” she said, unsure of herself.
“I think Reesa wants to be your friend.” I reassured her, sensing how nervous she was with the addition of a new person in her already unstable life.
Reesa nodded so hard I could practically hear her brain rattling in her skull.
“What do friends do?” she asked me and Sonny scratched his head.
“Well, we’re kind of like friends, aren’t we?” I asked her and she took a second to think about that before agreeing and being content with it as a response.
“Can I take her out?” Reesa asked me and once again I shrugged a response.
“I’m not her fucking—” I tried to tell her but before I had even finished, Sonny had already cut in.
“No,” he said dryly, still standing over the couch with his arms crossed.
“Why not?” Reesa asked him, not so much as a challenge but a genuine question.
“Because I don’t trust her, I don’t know you, and worst of all, I have no faith that this isn’t some deeper ploy that Frollo is attempting to mastermind.” His lip was twitching at the mention of the Archbishop.
“You really got your panties in a bunch for him, dontcha scary guy?” She chuckled as she reached out and ruffled his hair, causing his eyes to widen with a furious type of rage.
He stormed off without a word and it was quite clear he’d gone to fix his hair in private, where he could process Reesa’s abrasive personality.
“You again?” Corvin’s voice echoed out from the hallway into the high ceilings of the chapel.
