Page 4 of Moonflower

Maybe I should break up with him.

No. I need the distraction.

“Cora?” he calls.

“In here,” I say, picking up the picture I dropped. As I stick it up on the wall again, Matt comes in.

“Oh, are you finally taking that shit down?”

I freeze, thumbtack in hand. “What?”

“The pictures. Of you and those two. You taking them down?”

“Why would I do that?”

“You hardly see them anymore. Barely talk to them.”

Barely talk to them in front of you.

“I’m not taking them down. They’re my best friends.”

Matt rolls his eyes and leaves. Typical.

I resume staring at the pictures of me and the boys for a few minutes. It only worsens my mood and makes me wish for things that’ll never happen.

For me to not be so damn selfish. For Wilder to not be so possessive. For me to be okay with being just friends with him and Ezra.

“Wishing won’t get you anywhere, Cora,” I mutter.

A distraction. That’s what I need. A shower and then something to keep my thoughts off Wilder and Ezra.

In the bathroom, I pull back the shower curtain to turn the water on. Then I grimace. I asked Matt to clean in here earlier, and I swear he did. I smelled the cleaning chemicals and everything. So why is the shower still dirty?

Stepping back from the shower, I take in the rest of the bathroom. Now that I’m actually looking, most of it doesn’t look clean.

“Hey, Matt?” I call.

“What?” It takes a second, but then he appears in the doorframe, arms crossed.

“Did you . . . did you clean in here?”

“Yeah.” He raises an eyebrow, like he knows exactly where this conversation is about to go.

“But it’s not clean.”

“It is.”

“There’s still soap residue on the shower walls. And it looks like you didn’t even sweep.” Or clean the sink.

He peers into the bathroom. “Looks fine to me.”

“But it’s—”

“If you’re going to be so nitpicky, maybe you should’ve done it yourself.”

I clench my fists. “I’m not being nitpicky.”

Matt rolls his eyes. “You’re just like my mom. All you do is nag.”

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