Page 17 of Fanged Secrets
In doing so, she missed the next two dragons and nearly dropped her phone, pointing the mallet at me in fierce accusation.
I laughed, holding up my hands in mock surrender. “All right, all right. I’ll let you concentrate.”
She swung again, and this time she managed to hit one of the dragon heads squarely. Her face lit up with triumph for a split second before another dragon popped up, and she missed it completely. Her face turned even redder as she quietly seethed at the machine.
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I didn’t know you were so competitive. Do you want to try again?”
She nodded vigorously and held up the mallet like a professional batter in a particularly intense game of baseball.
“All my wasted tokens…” I lamented, slotting a few more into the machine.
Amara didn’t respond, instead yanking me closer by the arm to take a sip of her slushie before getting back into position. She swung the mallet with renewed determination, managing to hit a few more dragons this time, but still missing more than she hit.
“Wow, you’re really into this, huh?” I smiled despite myself, absently taking another sip of her slushie and wincing.
Amara typed on her phone and, for once, the monotone voice was a perfect fit. “I hate losing.”
I laughed. “Well, you’ve got the gamer spirit, I’ll give you that.”
She stuck her tongue out at me, bright red courtesy of the cherry slushie, and then returned her focus to the game. This time, she seemed to find her rhythm, hitting more dragons with fewer misses. Her face was a mix of concentration and frustration, her cheeks flushed red.
“You know, you’re kind of cute when you’re all serious like that.” I teased her and was surprised to find that I meant it.
She blushed even more, her fingers flying over her phone’s keyboard. The app read out. “Stop distracting me, Dylan!”
I laughed again, the real kind of laugh that spread warmth through my chest that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. Finally, the game ended, and Amara let out a sigh of relief. She handed the mallet to me, her face still flushed but now blossoming with a broad, satisfied smile.
“Well, in the end, you didn’t suck that badly after all,” I said, handing her the slushie. “But you still owe me a secret.”
Amara’s smile faded slightly as she leaned against the game cabinet, sipping her slushie thoughtfully. I could see she was weighing her words carefully, her own buried secrets casting a shadow over her features.
Finally, she lifted her phone and typed slowly, the app’s mechanical voice speaking for her. “It’s not a pretty story.”
I shrugged, toying with the rubber mallet. “That’s fine. Tell me anyway.”
She stared at me for a while, like she was sizing me up, before sighing and typing into her cell. “I know how it feels to lose a sibling – my sister, Aliyah, was everything to me. Our mother left when we were very young, so it was just the two of us and ourfather. Don wasn’t discreet about what kind of business he dealt in, at least not around us. He wasn’t kind about it either.”
I grimaced at the mention of Don. I needed no convincing of her father’s cruelty, his malevolence was evident in the way Amara curled into herself in his presence. Even when they were apart, I could see Don’s influence in the way Amara flinched at every stern glare, and whenever she quickly covered her mouth after uttering the slightest sound.
“Aliyah did her best to protect me,” Amara continued typing, tracing the swirling patterns on the floor with one foot. “But it wasn’t easy. Don’s partners were always around, and some of them were dangerous. Aliyah kept their attention off me, but she couldn’t be around all the time.”
I stilled at the implications of her words, slowly setting down the mallet.
Amara kept her eyes on her cell phone screen. “When I lost my hearing, Don decided that homeschooling was the best option – I think it had more to do with keeping his enemies on the backfoot than because of any real concern he had for my well-being. After that, I lost the few friendships I’d managed to make. The world went silent and I was completely alone in it. But Aliyah learned sign language so we could still talk.”
She paused for a second and her bottom lip trembled slightly, curving into a wobbly smile before she continued. “She was my protector, my best friend. But raising a child when you’re still a kid yourself isn’t easy. After everything that happened – our mother leaving, dealing with Don, dealing with, well, me, it was all too much for her. She started with pills and spiraled from there, stealing drugs from our father’s supply.”
I passed a hand over my eyes, rubbing my temple and staring at the floor. Finally, I understood her vehement demand to keep narcotics out of the apartment.
Amara sucked in a breath and held it for a moment. Eventually, she sighed like she was overcoming some great hurdle and typed out the end of her story. “I tried to help her, but in the end I was useless. I didn’t even know it at first, when she overdosed – and when I realized, I thought if I could just get her to the hospital in time, everything would be fine. But I was wrong.”
It was my turn to look horrified, and I must have done it well because Amara smiled up at me, sipping her slushie while typing. “You’re not the only one with a sob story. I told you it wasn’t pretty.”
Despite her smile, her eyes were glassy, and she sniffed quietly before typing again. “In a way, I think I understand exactly how you feel. You think Damian should have been the one who made it out. I wake up every morning wishing the same for Aliyah. But we’re the ones who are here now, so we may as well make the most of it.”
It was then that I looked at her, really looked at her, and in her hazel eyes I saw my reflection staring back. She had lost someone she loved deeply, just like I had. And just like me, she carried the burden of that loss every single day.
The air between us felt thick with shared sorrow, and I suddenly – desperately – wanted to ease the tension. “You make a good point,” I said, nudging her gently. “Now that we’re done being depressing – wanna ride the bumper cars?”
