AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"You can hand me the money now, I guess. The dress was..." she trailed off as she dug through the bag for the receipt. She found it at the bottom and pulled it out, scanning it for the price of the black dress specifically. The number brought her faintness back. "…It was three hundred and forty-nine dollars," she murmured.
Renly nodded.
"Sounds reasonable to me. I'll stop at an ATM on our way out. We're done now, right?" He looked at his sister now, his tone almost begging.
Ellenora rolled her eyes and pouted. "I guess. Let me just finish up in this store, and we can go."
Mykie wanted to argue and curse that Renly didn't have to pay for something that expensive and she could just return it but stopped. In a way, Blaine had already paid for it, and now Renly was almost paying her for the dress. It felt wrong to accept the money, but she knew that he wouldn't allow her to refuse without explaining the situation to him.
By the time they left the mall, Mykie was almost positive that Renly's view of his rear-view window would be blocked with millions of dress bags. Instead of bagging them like Blaine had them, where they were folded inside a bag, Ellenora had them in long bags with zippers.
Renly had to drive his sister home before he would arrive back at his house, so she told him that she would meet him there. She'd already promised the rest of the day to Corbus, so she didn't mind him being late back to his own house.
It took about a half an hour to reach Renly's house from the mall, which made her anxious. She'd thought about turning the car around, but she told herself Renly was right. Nothing was going to stop them from being involved, now that the Vultures were circling them. Even with her, the Vultures were keeping a close eye on Renly and his family.
So close that one might be living with them.
Mykie pushed the thought out of her head immediately. Blaine wouldn't do that to his friends. To his best friend…right?
When she pulled into their driveway, she parked just outside the garage since the door wasn't open for her to pull through.
She promised herself that she wouldn't jump to conclusions based on a few words from Blaine that could have meant a dozen of things. She hoped that the boys would do the same for her.
With that last thought in mind, she climbed out of her car and with a deep sigh, knocked on the front door.
REVEALING CONVERSATIONS
Corbus opened the door and ushered her inside. "Renly said you were heading over, so we started cooking dinner."
"Which means that I've been cooking, and he's been bothering me," Caspar called out from where he was cutting vegetables.
The black-haired boy, after closing the front door, had gone and flopped back down on the couch, sketchbook already in hand.
Mykie walked over to the couch he was on and peered over his shoulder. It was a portrait, which she remembered him saying he wasn't very good at. From what she could see, he was working on the eyes right now.
"I thought you wanted a night where it was just us," Mykie said, glancing over to Caspar as he moved around the kitchen the best he could with crutches.
Corbus closed his sketchbook and tossed it on the coffee table in front of him before he sat back onto the couch, bringing his feet up until he could cross his legs into a pretzel.
He adjusted the glasses on his face. "I don't know how to cook well, so I had to ask Caspar for help."
"If you're okay with that, then so am I," she answered as she rounded the couch and plopped down next to him. "I thought Caspar and you didn't get along, though."
Corbus played with a loose thread on a blanket on the couch. "It's not that. I've just known the other two longer. It takes me a long time to like someone and even longer to trust someone."
"You seemed to trust me pretty fast," Mykie murmured.
Corbus snorted. "You see how that turned out."
She resisted her urge to flinch at his words. Did he really feel that way? That she had somehow betrayed his trust? Tricked him?
They fell into some type of silence that she couldn't describe, though it wasn't entirely uncomfortable. She wasn't sure what to do with herself, so she simply watched Caspar chop the vegetables instead of staring at Corbus' silent form.
"I'm sorry," Corbus started, bringing her attention back to him. "I shouldn't have said it like that. I've given some thought to what you said before, and I realized that I didn't really have a chance to get to know you at all. The few times you and I have been alone, it wasn't long before you were taking off to somewhere else."
Mykie nodded, but it wasn't like Corbus would have noticed. Since opening the door, he had not made eye contact with her.
"Is there a reason you can't look at me?"
