Jared shrugged. “You’ll have more in a few weeks, right?”
Alara shook her head. “You don’t get it. Someone took money out of my account. Unless it was hacked, my parents are the only ones who have that kind of access.”
Priest slipped off his headphones. “What are you saying?”
“It’s a message.” Alara got out and hit speed dial. “I need to make a call.”
She paced in front of the van and, judging from her scowl, the conversation wasn’t going well. The way Alara held the phone right in front of her while she shouted into it reminded me of Elle, who did almost exactly the same thing whenever one of her boyfriends screwed up. I wished she were here now.
I tried to imagine Alara and Elle meeting—two iron wills clashing, or forging into one unstoppable and sarcastic force.
Lukas watched as she screamed at the phone. “Not good.”
Alara got in and slammed the door, seething.
Priest leaned over the seat tentatively. “What happened?”
“My parents want me to come home. They’ve been pressuring me ever since my grandmother died. My mom thinks I don’t have enough training.” She laughed. “Like I’ll be able to get any there. Neither one of them is part of the Legion. What do they think they’re going to teach me?”
Jared looked surprised. “You never said anything.”
She reached over and turned the key in the ignition. “That’s because I’m not going back.”
We pulled into a motel parking lot, a cracked vacancy sign flashing above the office. Empty beer cans littered the walkway.
“It’s only for one night. How bad can it be?” Priest asked.
From Alara’s perspective, it couldn’t have been worse. Every door facing the lot was Pepto-Bismol pink.
She crossed her arms, defiant. “I’m not sleeping in a room with a pink door. That’s where I draw the line.”
Lukas got out and walked toward the office. “You can always sleep in the van.”
By the time he came back with the key, Priest had persuaded Alara to check out the room. But when Lukas unlocked the door, he stopped short.
“Alara, you might want to rethink that line.”
Inside, the tiny room was painted the same sickening shade of pink.
“No way.” She backed up, shaking her head. “I’d rather sleep on the thirteenth floor.”
Priest coaxed her across the threshold. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from the dangerous color.”
The room was practically empty—two double beds with mismatched bedspreads, a broken TV on a rolling cart, and a plastic trash can that hadn’t been emptied lately. Not even a cheap landscape on the tragically bare walls.
Alara crinkled her nose. “This is disgusting.”
Priest fell back onto the tacky Western bedspread. “It has beds. That’s all that matters.”
“Two.” Alara tipped her chin toward me. “And we get one of them.”
“I call half of this one,” Priest said. “I did almost drown.”
“You’re going to milk that for all it’s worth, aren’t you?” Alara teased.
“Ah… that would be a yes.”
“You should call the first shower while you’re at it,” she said. “You smell even worse than Kennedy.”
Jared and Lukas stood next to each other by the door. I wasn’t used to seeing them side by side, the same broad shoulders and full lips, sleepy eyes and long eyelashes.
After Priest took a shower, I was voted second dirtiest. I didn’t argue. Dried well water coated my skin, and my clothes were even worse.
“Hey.” Lukas was behind me with something balled up in his hand. “I have an extra T-shirt if you need one.” I hadn’t thought about what I was going to put on after my shower.
“Thanks.”
My scraped skin brushed his rope-burned palm. Even bloody and raw, his touch was gentle—like him. I could imagine Lukas listening to “Home,” the song we both loved, whispering the lyrics to himself the way I did when I felt lost.
I closed the door and leaned against it, letting the room fill with steam. I didn’t want to look at my tangled hair and grime-streaked face in the mirror. But I didn’t need to see the fresh cuts on the rest of my body to know they were there. Hot water stung them as I sat on the shower floor, waiting for the brown water running off my legs to turn clear again.
The memory of Millicent’s cold arm around my neck and the well water filling my lungs finally drove me out of the shower.
I slipped into Lukas’ T-shirt, relieved when it grazed my knees. I was even more relieved that I had ignored Elle when she tried to convince me to trade my boy shorts for “cute” underwear, with stupid words like pink written on the back.
When I finally opened the door, it still felt like everyone could see right through the shirt.
Priest put on his headphones. “Anyone care if I turn off the lights?”