“Yeah, she’s good at that,” Jason added, and both boys walked away, side by side.
***
“Hey, what’re you guys doing?” I asked, catching them on the stairs.
“Sleepover,” Emily said.
“Sleepover?”
“Yeah.” Morgaine stepped past Emily. “Mike and Em had a fight. She doesn't want to sleep in the same room.”
I noticed Em’s red eyes then. “Are you okay, Em?”
“Yeah,” she said, her voice still shaky. “I just…you know what he’s like.”
“Um, no.” I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“He just doesn't get it.”
“Ara won't either, Em.” Morgaine wrapped her arm around Emily. “She's his best friend.”
“Try me,” I said.
“He doesn't listen to me,” she started, and it all came pouring out with tears. “He doesn't understand what I'm trying to say. He thinks I'm being needy and bitter, when all I want is for him to want to spend time with me. That's all. I just want him to want to. He doesn’t even have to, that’s not what I’m after, you know. And I know he doesn't have time, but…it’s just, maybe if he’d meet with me for a coffee every morning, or even invite me, or maybe if he’d spent time with me last night instead of going fishing with the boys, then I wouldn’t be so upset. I don’t want all his time…” She took a few jagged breaths. “I just want him to want to be with me, even though he can’t.”
“How do you know he doesn’t want that?” I asked.
Emily wiped her cheeks, angling her face away from me. “He doesn’t show it.”
I sighed, dropping my arms. “For what it’s worth, Em, I do understand. And I also understand why Mike doesn't understand how you feel.”
“Why?” she asked.
“He’s just…that's just how he always was with girls, before he and I were together.”
“But I'm not just some girl. I'm his fiancé.” She held up her ring hand.
I shrugged. If she thought she would be any different, she was kidding herself. She knew Mike only for the curse-captured, obsessed version of himself he was with me. But that just wasn’t who he was.
Morgaine hugged Emily close, rubbing her back. “Where’s David, Ara?”
“Um, he’s on the phone to National Security, dealing with some human issue.”
“Well, come on then.” She grabbed my hand, keeping an arm around Em. “You’re having a sleepover with us.”
“Okay,” I said. “But no scary movies.”
Emily and Morg exchanged grins.
“Knock, knock,” David said softly, peering into the dark room.
“Shh.” Morg scowled at him.
He pretended to zip his lips, then tiptoed in slowly and crawled onto the bed between Emily and I.
“What are you doing here?” I whispered.
“Missed you.”
I reached down and linked my fingers through his, cupping my other hand over his wrist.
“What are we watching?” he asked.
“Shh.” Em jammed her elbow in his ribs.
“Ow.” He laughed and poked her back.
“Chick flick,” I whispered.
He turned his head to look at Emily, then Morg, and laughed quietly, swiping a tear from Em’s cheek. “Sad movie?”
“Shut up,” Emily said. “Just because you lack the ability to show any human emotion.”
“I'm beginning to see why I stopped in the first place,” he said playfully, then wrapped his other arm over Emily’s shoulder and pulled her ear to his lips. “What happened?”
I was about to fill him in on the plot line, when Emily’s lip trembled, and I realised quickly that he wasn’t referring to the film.
My gaze went back to the TV set. I knew anything she had to say would be said in thought—not for my ears, clearly. She was so upset tonight, which could only mean there was more to this story than she’d said. But, of course, she wasn’t about to badmouth Mike with me in the room. I think she knew, deep down inside, which side I’d take. But she was kidding herself to think David would side with her, either; he and Mike were two peas in a pod.
“I’ll talk to him for you,” David said in that deep, whispery tone.
She shook her head. “Don't bother. I'm not sure I care anymore.”
“Of course you do, or you wouldn’t be crying.”
“This would be so much sadder if they were vampires, not humans,” Morg cut in, her mouth full of popcorn.
“Just pretend they are,” I said.
“You’re not crying, Ara,” David stated, removing his arm from around Emily. “You always cry in these movies.”
“Guess I've done my fair share of crying for the next decade or so.”
He sat forward and looked at my face, sinking back again with a sigh. “I'm sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
“Just…” He scratched his chin, leaving his hand just under it for a second after. “I just wish I’d taken better care of you.”
My words were lost, and I think Morg and Em were so shocked by it, even they held their breath. I felt the awkwardness saturate the air then, as both girls slowly turned back to watch the movie, and David looked on with a certain amount of trouble behind that gaze. He wasn't watching the movie at all; he was lost in whatever picture of the past he’d just apologised for. But we all looked up, Morg pausing the film, when a loud rap came down on her door, and before she even got off the bed, the tension rose in the room with the scent of Mike outside.
“Hey,” Morg said, opening the door only a crack.
“Hey.” Mike’s arm appeared on the doorframe above Morg’s head. “You got a sec?”
“Uh, I’ve got…company,” she said, opening the door.
Mike’s mouth popped open a little. “Em, there you are. I was wondering where you’d got to.”
She looked into her lap.
I leaned over and whispered in Em’s ear, “What’s he doing here if he’s not here to see you?”
“You’re welcome to join us.” Morg’s voice rose over mine in an obvious attempt to shut me up.
“No, he's not,” Emily said, coldly.
“Aw, Em, come on.” Mike took a step into the room. “Don't be like that, you know I—”
“Mike, just go, please,” she said, holding a hand up.