Page 29 of Ravaged
“Yes.”
“You said yes?” I press.
“I did. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“I’m sure Daniel was happy about that.” I rummage up a smile, turning up the wattage to cover the howl of pain echoing in my head. “I hope you have a good time too. You just might surprise yourself.”
No, I didn’t answer her question. I evaded it like a fucking dodgeball.
But none of us want the truth.
Not her.
Not Daniel.
I don’t even want it.
So I’ll go along as I have been. The best friend. The confidant.
The man secretly in lust and love with the one woman he can’t have.
Yeah, no one wants that.
CHAPTER SIX
MIRIAM
“They want to use me for my blood. Little do they know, I’m out for theirs.”
—Sarafina Rose, Ravaged Lands
“I swear ’fore Black Jesus if that DJ plays the ‘Cha-Cha Slide’ one more time and I have to see another grandma get funky with it, Dad’s next altar call is going to be quite busy lifting my name in prayer.”
I stare at the dance floor as the wedding reception guests bum-rush it like the DJ just announced a going-out-of-business sale at Gucci instead of spinning the opening notes of thestillpopular song. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I love a good “Cha-Cha Slide.” Butthree times? Kill me now. But I promise I’ll take DJ Casper with me.
“What are we even doing at this wedding anyway?” I continue to gripe. “Dad and Mom have never mentioned these people. I’m sure they’re very lovely, but I don’t need to be here celebrating their connubial bliss. Do you know what I could be doing on a Saturday afternoon? Nothing. Absolutelynothing. And enjoying every bit of it.”
“Here.” Zora shoves a clear plastic plate of chicken fingers, coleslaw, meatballs, and deviled eggs into my hands. “You’re hangry. Follow my lead, and stuff your face. If you eat, it’s less painful, and the time goes by quicker.”
I accept the plate from my sister with an arched eyebrow. “Did you just make that up? Because one doesn’t sound like it correlates to the other.”
She shrugs and grabs a sauce-covered, toothpick-speared meatball off Cyrus’s plate. “You’re the genius. You’d know.”
There was a time when comments like that from her and Levi would aggravate me. But back then, it’d been my sensitivity that had made the comments sound mocking and unkind instead of the regular sibling teasing it was. I’d had to grow into that understanding, though. And it hadn’t been easy.
I guess some people could say I could thank Robert Sampson for that revelation.
Well, “some people” could go fuck themselves right along with Robert Sampson.
“Do you want me to get you your own plate?” Cyrus asks Zora as she forages on his plate again and retrieves another meatball.
“Why? You have a problem sharing?” My sister pops the appetizer in her mouth, then slowly withdraws the toothpick, and the way Cyrus studies her mouth is positively pornographic.
Yech.
“Excuse me, but never let me see you eye-fucking my sister in front of me again. Please and thank you.” Levi doesn’t glance up from tapping on his phone as he delivers that blunt gem.
Food lodges in my throat, and I cough, eyes watering. Note to self. Laughing and swallowing may result in death by coleslaw.
