I tiptoe off the bed and smooth out the quilt. On second thought, I change my old shirt for a clean one, one of Sammi’s yellow, scoop-necked tees. I put on fresh undies and jeans. I rub the sleepies out of the corners of my eyes and run my fingers through my hair. Male voices talk downstairs, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. Then it’s quiet. I’m looking for a hairbrush when the door opens again and Linus enters, carrying a giant mug of coffee.
“Hi,” he says. He sets down the mug and tackles me back onto the bed.
“Hey!” I laugh.
He puts his finger on my lips. “Be very quiet or you’ll get no coffee.”
I squirm beneath him, and together we struggle to make no noise.
Otis and Parker finally leave for the day. I soon realize there’s no point trying to get on the Forge campus until it’s night. Besides, once I kill Berg, things could go very badly for me, so I decide to make the most of my day with Linus. I put off calling Burnham. Linus and I eat Cap’n Crunch cereal. We kiss some more. We talk. He asks about my ride in the driver-free car. I ask about the Lego Death Star. Linus teaches me to throw darts, but I’m no good because I throw too hard. We kiss some more.
It’s hard for me to avoid talking about Berg because I’m nervous about the coming night, but the more I think of it, the more I decide it’s better to keep Linus out of it. I don’t want him involved as an accessory to murder, and I don’t want him trying to convince me not to go through with it. He somehow has the mistaken impression that I’m going to get a good lawyer and emancipate myself from both Berg and my parents. Then my life is going to go back to normal. I don’t correct him. He thinks we’ll be able to date in the open, like regular people.
Late in the afternoon, he starts spaghetti sauce from scratch, cutting up tomatoes and onions. He wants it ready for when Otis and Parker come home around 6:30, and he wants me to eat with them. When he puts on a bib apron like back in his Forge kitchen days and ties the strings around his waist, it gets to me.
“What?” he says. “It keeps me clean.”
“I know. You just look nice.”
He smiles, shaking his head.
“Are you donating blood to Parker tonight? Is that why you’re making spaghetti sauce? For your tradition?”
“No,” he says. “I donated a couple of weeks ago. I promised spaghetti to Parker because I forgot to take out the garbage. Spaghetti’s his favorite.”
“You know, you could probably pay your rent with money now,” I say.
He laughs. “I do in St. Louis.”
“So you have an apartment there?”
“Yes. I’m only here on weekends when work allows,” he says.
“You sound so grown up.”
He makes a face at me.
I smile back. “Why are you still giving Parker your blood?”
“Otis still thinks it’s good for him,” Linus says. “We’re family. How can I say no?”
Molly scrambles to her feet and gives a bark. The doorbell rings. Linus and I stare at each other. I glance out the back windows, afraid I’ll see I don’t know what, but the dusky yard is empty.
“Quick. Upstairs,” Linus says, taking off his apron.
I light-foot it up as fast as I can.
Anyone who rings a doorbell can’t be too dangerous, I tell myself. Still, I grab my bag and jacket in case I have to leave quickly, and I hide in Linus’s room, crouched behind the desk, holding a dart for a weapon.
The footsteps of several people come up the stairs.
“Rosie?” Linus says, opening the door. “You in here? We have visitors.”
I straighten slowly. Behind Linus, a jock-type guy comes in and smiles politely. He has blond, short hair and a homely, square face that belongs on an Army recruitment poster. He steps aside to let in a pregnant girl.
She’s pretty, I think, taking in her dark hair, caramel skin, and hoop earrings. She’s slender everywhere except for her belly, which bulges large under a clingy green shirt. I appreciate her red Converse sneakers. Her bag looks designer. Her face is arresting in a timeless, regal way, as if she’s a lost princess, and she casts an uncertain glance around the room before she offers me a hesitant smile.
“Hey,” she says. “I’m Thea. Althea Flores.”
This girl is Thea? I’m stunned. I feel cheated. Nobody told me Thea was Latina or pregnant or older. Nobody warned me she was rich and pretty.
She’s a threat if ever I met one.
29
THEA
MEETING ROSIE
SEEING MYSELF WAS A SHOCK. The girl in Linus’s bedroom had my body, but she was horribly thin beneath her yellow shirt, and her lank hair dragged around her face. My face. Her eyes seemed darker and wilder than they’d ever been when they were mine. She lowered the dart in her hand, and I had the freaky sense that I’d escaped from a mirror, only my image had become a living, untamed doppelganger.
The next instant, my mind flipped. I was still in Althea’s body. She was the real version of me. I was the imposter in the wrong body.
“Who’s this?” she asked, indicating Tom.
“Tom,” I said. I jerked a hand in his direction. “This is Tom Barton. From Texas. Tom, this is Rosie Sinclair.”
“Hello,” he said.
She gave him a cursory glance before she returned her cool gaze to me.
I didn’t know where to start. I wasn’t sure how much Linus had told her. He stood tensely in front of a desk, watching me like he expected me to start doing head-spinning tricks. I should have called first. I took a chance that he’d be home, but I hadn’t expected that Rosie would be here, too.
“How far along are you?” she asked.
My voice sounded wrong originating from her. The low huskiness belonged between my ears, not coming at me.
“Eight months,” I said. “I’m due in four weeks.”
“Are you the dad?” she asked, glancing at Tom.
“Yes,” he said. “It’s nice to meet you,” he added. “I’ve been hearing about you.”
“Is that right?” Rosie asked. She rolled a dart in her fingers, studying me. “Why are you here?”
“I came to see Linus. I wanted to ask him if he’d heard from you,” I said. “I guess he did.”
“Did you know she was coming?” she asked him.
He shook his head. “No idea.” He glanced at me. “I thought you were in Texas.”
“We took a road trip,” I said and turned to Rosie again. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I’m you,” I said. It was freaking me out to talk to myself, especially when she was obviously suspicious of me. “I woke up in this body, but I started out in you. Berg had us in a vault of dreamers, and Dr. Ash came to mine us. Remember how the white spheres were stealing Dubbs? Remember the golden strands of light?”
She tilted her head, frowning. “Go on.”
“We had two voices, remember? We talked to ourselves.”
“Lots of people talk to themselves,” she said.
“But not like us,” I said. “We were trapped together. You begged me to stay in the vault with you, but I couldn’t. They were mining us away into nothing, remember? I took a chance. They were ripping Dubbs away, off the tracks, and I left with that dream of Dubbs. I had to.”
She stood taller. “And look where it got you,” she said.
I gasped. “Then you believe me.”
She narrowed her eyes and took a step forward. “I have nothing to say to you, and I think you know why. Excuse me.”
She stalked past me and out the door. I stared after her, stunned.