Page 26 of Look at Her and Die

Morning rush was my least favorite, and usually the one that my mother did because she knew I’d just as soon not come in if I had to open in the mornings.

But since my mother still wasn’t home—something that she did from time to time so I wasn’t too worried yet—I had to pay the bills. And paying the bills required me to get my ass up and get to work.

Unluckily for Kent, he’d seen how tired I was and had offered to work with me this summer. Which in turn meant that Anders had to be there, too.

Not that I felt too badly about it.

I’d spent my entire childhood in those four grimy walls, and I’d made it out okay.

Anders would survive spending her summer there, even if she didn’t like it.

Letting her control the TV above the windows helped.

Thoughts of my childhood followed me into sleep, where I stayed for a solid four hours before I woke up out of a dead sleep.

When I glanced at the clock, I realized that it was well past two in the morning and I hadn’t heard Calliope come back in for the night.

Stomach now in knots just thinking about my little sister, I sat up in bed and reached for my laptop, thinking that if I was going to be awake and worrying, I might as well spend my time wisely.

I didn’t bother to call her or check her location.

She’d disabled the location thing a long time ago when she’d caught me snooping on her whereabouts.

Calling her was just as useless because she sure the fuck wouldn’t answer the phone if I called.

That’d been something she stopped doing when she turned fifteen and decided that I was the worst person on the planet.

Teens were so much fun.

I was about halfway through the first layer, working on font and sizing for the title, when my phone rang on the bedside table.

I didn’t bother to look at the ID, knowing that it was her.

“Calliope,” I said quietly, hoping that my talking wouldn’t wake Kent and Anders.

My room split theirs, and the walls were paper thin.

“Can you come pick me up?” Calliope sounded pissed.

Whether it was because she was calling me for a ride or something else, I would probably never know.

There was only so much I’d ever get out of Calliope. She was overly protective of her privacy, and what little she did give me left me with more questions than answers.

I wasn’t sure if normal teenage girls were like this.

Hell, I remembered being mad at the world myself at that age. But I didn’t have the luxury of withdrawing like she did. I had three kids to help raise.

“Where?” I asked, forcing myself not to ask her what was wrong.

She’d clam up if I did that. Possibly tell me to fuck off and she didn’t need a ride after all.

“I’ll send you my location,” she muttered.

She did in the next moment, but I knew from experience that it would only be for an hour.

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” I said as I got a good look at her location.

A part of town that I’d never been to before. Hell, it likely wasn’t in Decatur at all, but all the app showed me was directions, not a specific address.

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