Page 57 of Wandering in Darkness
Felix: He’s so cute! We’re already soulmates. He saw me and went “rooooo” and it was so cute. It meant “I love you and you can never leave me.”
Lane: NO. PUT IT BACK.
Felix: Why are you using so many capitals? I feel like you don’t understand. I think that program of yours is giving you fits again.
Lane: Cal made you cookies, tarts, and cheesecake, and you’ll get none of it if you bring that dog home.
Felix: So feisty!
And then silence.
“You shouldn’t have left him alone,” I say.
“I really shouldn’t have,” he replies with a sigh. “He’s joking, right?”
“I think so.” I look down at the menagerie that’s hovering at my feet in case I drop something edible. “Maybe. What if you just get him that horse he wants and tell him if you do, he can’t steal any more animals?”
“Where are we putting a horse?”
“I don’t know. Your dad likes building things. He can build him a little fence.”
“My dad likes tearing cars apart and then spending fifteen years going, ‘Huh… I think this part goes here.’”
“Board it.”
“Maybe.” Then he looks alarmed. “Do not tell Felix I said ‘maybe.’”
I hear a car pull into the driveway as Copper rushes over to the window to bark at whoever has joined us.
“Is that Felix? If he has that dog, I’m locking this door,” he says.
I head over to the window but Copper isn’t wagging his tail, telling me it’s not Felix. Instead, the person who gets out of the car is the last one I expected.
“Why’s Grayson here?” I ask.
“I… don’t know. I don’t think he texted me. Maybe he talked to Felix.”
He knocks on the door as Lane turns to me. “What do you want me to say to him? Do you want him to know you’re here?”
Instead of answering and being like, “No, I will hide,” I foolishly stand there in the window long enough that Grayson looks over and catches my eyes.
“My dumb ass stood in the window long enough he saw me,” I mutter.
“Ah. I mean… we can still pretend,” he says as he walks over to the door and pulls it open.
Lane unhelpfully greets Grayson with, “Cal’s not here. That was his ghost you saw in the window.”
“Can I speak to Cal’s ghost for one minute?” Grayson asks.
“Cal’s ghost… do you want to speak to Grayson for one minute?”
I growl out my dissatisfaction before grudgingly walking over. “One minute.”
“Hey,” he says as Lane leaves and Copper tries to sniff him over.
“I thought you said you’d wait for me to come to you?”
“I will. I actually didn’t know you were going to be here. I was going to tell Lane or Felix to let you know.”
