“I live across the hall. What are you doing here?”
Tenley’s neighbor worked in the strip club Sienna managed. Oh, the irony. “I’m checking on her tattoo,” I said, concerned about the information Sarah might impart to Sienna if given the opportunity, or vice versa.
“You’re doing what? Making a house call?” Her eyes narrowed with distrust.
“Calm down, I work across the street.” I needed to diffuse the situation.
“How do you two know each other?” Tenley slurred.
“Do you have any idea what kind of person he is?” Sarah jabbed her finger at me.
“What?” Tenley rubbed her temple, looking upset. “I don’t understand . . .”
“Your friend here,” Sarah pointed at me, “has quite the reputation where I work—”
I cut her off. “Sienna’s pathological. That’s who you’re talking about, right?” When she just stared, I barreled on. “Everything that comes out of her mouth is skewed. What I want to know is why you think it’s a good idea to get Tenley high and, from the look of it, drunk, when she’s just come out of a four-hour tattoo session.”
“Do you have any idea how hard this is for her? She came knocking on my door in tears because of this.” Sarah motioned to her back.
For the first time I noticed what Tenley was wearing. Her sweatshirt was loose and fell off one shoulder, exposing the cellophane that covered her back. There was no bra. For once I didn’t have an inappropriate reaction.
“That’s why I wanted her to take Tylenol, not get high and wasted. Alcohol is a blood thinner, for fuck sake.”
“I don’t mean how uncomfortable she is, you idiot. I mean why she wants the damn thing in the first place.”
“I can empathize,” I said indignantly. Sarah had no idea what I had been through. I understood Tenley’s loss far better than she could. “Losing her parents would have been painful.”
Tenley’s eyes widened in fear as Sarah’s widened in shock. She looked at Tenley. “Your parents? Is that what you told him?”
Here it was, the secret Tenley was keeping. I knew there had to be more behind her pain than what little I’d been told. And Sarah already knew more than me.
“Sarah, please don’t,” Tenley whispered. She gripped my forearm, ragged nails pressed into the skin.
But Sarah ignored her, and I wished she hadn’t, because it wasn’t how I wanted to know. “She didn’t just lose her parents, you stupid ass; she lost her whole family and all of her friends. She lost everyone, she even lost her—”
“Sarah!” Tenley yelled, and both of us looked at her, stunned to hear her raise her voice.
“Tenley?” I said quietly. The look on her face confirmed what Sarah said.
It was so much worse than I ever could have imagined. My parents’ deaths had been horrible, but this, this was beyond anything I could comprehend.
“Sarah, can you give us a minute,” Tenley asked, sounding empty and defeated.
“I’m not leaving.” Sarah put a hand on her hip and raised her eyebrow in challenge.
Tenley sighed. “I’m not asking you to, I’m just asking you to give us a minute, please.”
“I’m not going to kidnap her.” It might not have been a half-bad idea at this point.
“I’ll be in your bedroom.” Sarah glared over her shoulder at me as she walked away.
Tenley was staring at the floor. “Please don’t be mad at me.” She was crying. “I couldn’t tell you. I wouldn’t have made it through the outline.”
“I’m not mad, kitten,” I said, because now that I knew how deep her wounds ran, I couldn’t be. But I was mad at myself. This level of loss was exactly the kind of thing I worried about. Tenley was smart, which was likely part of the reason she kept the information from me in the first place. What she didn’t get was that I would have agreed even if I’d known, purely out of selfishness. I needed more answers, but I couldn’t ask questions now. Tenley was far too emotionally unstable as it was.
She buried her face in my chest, shaking as she mumbled apologies into my shirt.
“You don’t have to be sorry.” I kissed the top of her head and tried to reassure her.
The apologies continued, though, her words becoming less and less coherent as her crying escalated into sobs. I was way out of my element. Sarah appeared in the hallway, murder in her eyes until she realized Tenley was clinging to me. I must have looked horror-struck.
“Come on, Tenley.” Sarah tried to pry her away, not that I wanted her to; I just didn’t know what to do to make it better. I’d never felt so useless in my life.