Page 64 of Freak Show

I was only assuming that was what she meant by ‘ten-by-three-feet space.’

“We do,” she confirmed. “We have a master bedroom on our bus, but we actually use it as a closet. We all have a shit ton of clothes.” She paused. “At one point, that was where our father slept. But when he died, we turned it into our walk-in closet.”

“That sounds suspiciously like a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to him,” I pointed out.

She shrugged. “It was. Our dad was…”

“Was…” I waited as I pushed into the closest room and dropped our bags onto the floor at the end of the bed.

“A force of nature,” she finished as she followed me into the room. “How long until you need to leave?”

I looked at my Rolex.

“An hour,” I said. “We need to meet down in the lobby, and the bus will take us to the stadium.”

“I’ll shower fast.” She clapped her hands. “I’m so excited to use a real bathroom.”

Then she was gone, leaving me alone to my thoughts.

I collapsed onto the bed and threw the crook of my arm over my eyes.

I was fast asleep in less than a minute.

When I next woke, it was to wet hair trailing along my cheek.

I blinked open bleary eyes to find her hovering over me with her face, the tail end of her Dutch braid in her hand as she dragged it along my cheek.

She must’ve braided it while it was wet.

“Hello,” I said gruffly.

“I woke you up with like nine minutes to spare,” she said. “Do you need to get changed or anything?”

I leaned upward and caught her lips with my own before falling back down. “No. I’m ready.”

And I was.

I’d change at the stadium in the guest locker room into clothes the team provided for us.

The only thing I needed to bring was myself.

And her.

“Let’s go,” I grumbled.

When I didn’t get enough sleep, I was grumpy.

And, seeing as we now had to go work out on top of no sleep, I wasn’t in the best of moods.

I probably shouldn’t have gone to sleep.

In fact, I knew I shouldn’t have.

But telling myself that and actually keeping my eyes open were two different things.

I stood up and watched as she stood, too, and headed for her Birkenstock sandals.

Once she was dressed, she caught my hand up and said, “Ready.”

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