Page 28 of Loving Ladybug: Part One
I made a bed out of old stadium blankets and cushions I’d found in another closet. It wasn’t that comfortable, but it was only the first night.
Still…
I could reach out to my oldest brother. He’d help me in a moment. But if I did, I risked him telling the dads.
No. It was better to be free and sleep in a closet than involve my family.
Instead, I texted Tenzin.
Me
This is Gwen. Thanks for keeping me company tonight.
It was nice. I was looking forward to seeing who he deemed having the best muffins in the city.
Clark had sent a bunch of videos on insta-chat, mostly chronicling his day, what he fixed, what he ate. At one point, his little sister bombed the video and made faces.
A new video popped up. “Look, Ladybug.”
The video moved and an expanse of stars filled the screen.
“There you are.” His finger pointed, then a highlighter circled a group of stars.
I peered at the video, replaying it to get a closer look. I sent a new one, careful so my surroundings weren’t obvious. “What is that?”
He sent me another video. “It’s you. It’s called the golden beetle, but I’d like to think it’s theladybug.”
I replied. “You’re so silly, Clark. The stars sure are pretty. Go to sleep. Where are you?”
“It’s not as late here,” he laughed, sending a new video. “I’m on the roof of the barn.” The camera spun around, showing me his parent’s home. “Good night, Gweny. Sweet dreams.”
My body yearned for sleep–and I was playing tennis with Carlos in the morning. I’d found a racket in the gym lost and found when I was last on campus.
Usually I’d listen to forensic accounting podcasts before bed. Some of them were quite interesting, especially thetrue storyones, where they detailed how companies and powerful people had been brought down.
Instead, I found the playlist I’d been listening to all week. It was one my friend Mercy had up on Musify. She had the best stuff, including a lot of good songs I’d never heard of. This playlist was calledMy big sister’s sad girl playlist Number 2.
I was a sad girl.
Shutting off the light of the storeroom, I put on the music, curled up in my little makeshift bed, and cried myself to sleep.
Chapter Eight
Gwen
Iducked into a takeout café. It was cute and friendly, with simple offerings at reasonable prices. What I liked most was the meal board. There were a handful of places like this around the city.
People could pay for a meal and pin it on the board for someone else to have. If there was a meal available, you took it off the board, brought it to the register, and it was yours. The first thing I ever did when I got a windfall tip was to buy something for as many boards as I could.
Meals also could go quickly, which was why I was looking now, so I could pocket it, then return after coffee and grab something for dinner on my way back to the rink. While I got food at the rink, it wasn’t enough.
I didn’t feel comfortable sneaking into the Knight’s kitchen at the training center and making myself an actual meal, though I did grab snacks.
The place where the board had been was now a painting. Looking around, I didn’t spy it anywhere else. I went up to the register, since they weren’t busy.
“Um, did you move the meal board behind the register?” I bit my lower lip. The coffee shop had done that.
The woman, who I recognized, gave me a sympathetic look. “We got a new manager, and he got rid of it. Want me to see if there’s any messed up orders in the back?”
