Page 121 of Scoring Eden

“Yep.” She nods. “That too.”

Sebastian is still gaping at us and vibrating with rage, his bleeding hand staining his white shirt red, when we leave him behind on the street. I don’t know what’s going to happen to him now. To be honest, I don’t give a shit. So long as he’s far away from Eden and Macon, where he can never hurt them again, he can rot in hell for all I care.

I can’t believe there was ever a time that he had the privilege of loving Eden and chose to try and ruin her instead. But his loss is my gain. Because I plan to spend the rest of my days loving her enough for the both of us.

TEXT THREAD BETWEEN ALEX AND IMANI

Imani: Great news! The house is in escrow. It should be completed within twenty days.

Alex: And then we can move in?

Imani: Once confirmation has gone through, it’ll be all yours.

Alex: I need to make an update to the final deed.

Imani: Let me know what I can do.

Alex: Please have Eden Miller added as the joint owner.

THIRTY-FIVE

MACON

I’m tired.

I don’t like the bed at Dad’s house, so I never sleep well when I’m there. The covers are scratchy, and they smell like old people because of the lavender air freshener his girlfriend, Ellie, likes. It’s always cold too. Dad never lets anyone turn on the heat, so I have to use the scratchy covers, even though I hate them.

But mostly, it’s lonely.

I miss Mom, and Mr. Snuggles, and now, Uncle Alex.

Sometimes Ellie sneaks into my room to tuck me into bed because she knows I get homesick, and I’ve told her before that I can’t sleep unless Mom kisses me goodnight. Her real name is Eliana, but she lets me call her Ellie when my dad’s not around. I like her. She’s nice. Probably too nice for my dad, but she’s marrying him, so I guess she loves him.

He’s not very nice to her, though.

Or to me.

At breakfast this morning, he told me that he’ll be pulling me out of theater club and making me play sports instead. I hate sports. He told me it didn’t matter. He said that since I’ll be living with him from now on, things are going to change.

No more theater club. No more songs from the Hamilton soundtrack. No more soft toys at night.

But I get to keep my fedoras. So there’s that, at least.

“Macon? Are you with us?” Miss Tillmann’s disappointed voice makes me drop the pen I was chewing. The lid of my ballpoint is a mangled cone of black plastic, and she looks at it the way Dad looks at me when I ask to play Bruno Mars in the car. “Is there a reason you don’t want to pledge allegiance to the flag this morning?”

My cheeks go warm. I hate being called on in class. Hate being told off in front of everyone even more, especially today. People have been staring more than normal. Whispering when they think I can’t hear. Hiding their mouths behind their hands in the way people do when they don’t have anything nice to say.

“Sorry, Miss Tillmann. I was just thinking.”

About home.

My real home, not my new one like Dad says it is.

The one I have with Mom and Uncle Alex—and Aunt Aspen when she stays over. I don’t even miss our old apartment. Alex’s place is cool, and the comforter is soft, and I can sleep with Mr. Snuggles without anyone laughing at me or making me feel bad. I can get into bed with Mom when I have a nightmare and play video games with Alex before bed.

My belly hurts thinking about it, and my eyes start to sting.

Miss Tillmann rips off a strip of paper from the pad on her desk and scribbles something on it. “Well, you’ll have a lot of time to think in detention.”