My eyes narrowed. “Don’t turn this around on me.”
“I’m not the one who did this, Kate. I didn’t hurt Joshua. The guys who did it are in prison, and they’re going to be there for a very long time.”
“I know that. I was at the sentencing hearing. Where were you?”
He stood up and grabbed my plate, carrying both plates to the kitchen.
“I’m going to bed,” he said. “Don’t try to leave the house.”
And then he was gone. Just like before.
Chapter 7
Kate
I watched television for a while, thinking about sneaking out just to see what would happen. But my head hurt and I was exhausted despite the fact that I’d spent most of the day in bed. I paused outside his bedroom door, my hand on the wood, wondering if he was asleep, if he was thinking about me.
“Don’t be stupid, Kate,” I whispered to myself.
I went into my own bedroom and slipped out of my sweat pants, no longer concerned with the cameras or who might be watching me on the other end. Then I crawled into bed, willing sleep to come quickly, but of course it didn’t. Instead, my thoughts worked their way back in time, to all those moments when Donovan’s constant presence in my house became more than just the boy down the street, more than just Joshua’s friend.
“Take the remote, Kate,” Joshua said, holding his game controller out to me. “I have to piss.”
“Real classy, Josh,” Donovan laughed.
“Why do I have to be classy? This is my house and she’s my sister. It’s not like she’s a real girl.”
“Gee, thanks,” I said, tossing my book at my brother.
“See? She doesn’t even know how to spend a Saturday afternoon. We’re seventeen, Kate,” he said, turning to me, “why aren’t you upstairs primping for a date?”
“Why aren’t you?”
“Because I’m a guy. It only takes five minutes to change my shirt and put on some cologne.”
“I’ll have to tell Amanda how hard you work to be pretty for her.”
“Go for it,” Joshua said, tossing my book back at me before climbing to his feet. “Seriously, take over the game for me.”
I climbed off the couch in the game room in the basement of our house, taking my time walking over to the beanbag Joshua had just abandoned. He glared at me as his character lost a life because he was too busy glaring at me.
“I don’t even know how to play this.”
“You’ve watched us often enough. You should.”
Joshua shoved the remote into my hand and ran toward the stairs, taking them two at a time. I laughed as I settled down in the bag, moving the character on the screen as expertly as Joshua would have. What he didn’t know was that I sometimes played this game when he and Donovan were out finding trouble.
“Good move,” Donovan said, his character rushing toward mine as we worked together against the same monsters. It was an intense few minutes, but we managed to clear the level and move to the next.
“Yes!” Donovan yelled, turning to me with his hand raised, waiting for a high five.
I slapped his palm.
“You wouldn’t have been able to do that without me.”
“You think so?”
“I’m good at this game.”
Donovan laughed. “And so modest about it.”
I shrugged. “Why should I be modest?” Then I reached past him and grabbed his bottle of soda. “And I deserve a reward.”
I started to get up, but he grabbed my arm, pulling me back down.
“That’s the last one.”
“I know. And now it’s mine.”
“No, it’s not.”
He reached for it, but I moved it out of his reach. I started up out of the beanbag again, but he grabbed me around the waist and pinned me to the bag. We started to wrestle, hands gong where they probably shouldn’t have. But we’d played like this since we were seven years old. Yet, there was something different about it, something about the way he looked at me when he finally had my shoulders pinned. I stopped fighting and looked up at him, my heart pounding as I focused on his lips and wondered what they would feel like on mine.
And he seemed more out of breath than he should have been…but it must have been my imagination.
Joshua came pounding back down the stairs calling to me.
“You better have not lost me my last life!”
Donovan let me go and settled back in his own beanbag.
“Here,” I said, handing him the soda. “You can have it.”
“No, you take it. You earned it.”
I could almost feel his hands on me as I slowly woke and realized I was dreaming, but the dream was most definitely a memory. That was the day I knew there was something between Donovan and I… something that shouldn’t have been there, but had somehow snuck up on the both of us. By graduation…
A scream reverberated through the house. I sat up, my heart pounding.
That must be what woke me.
It came again, a little muted this time.
I reached over to my nightstand, to the knife I kept hidden in there. But when the scream came a third time, I realized that it wasn’t an intruder. It was coming from the spare bedroom.