Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
“Good,” she grumbled, not seeming all that convinced.
Maybe I hadn’t gotten lucky in a lot of ways I wish I would’ve been, but in all the ones that mattered, I’d won the lottery. I’d been raised by wonderful parents. I had two friends who loved me so much, I was their second favorite person after each other. And I had a little guy that might trade me for a chicken tender basket if he was hungry enough, but later on, he’d regret it. But for the first time in a couple months, I wasn’t so concerned about the uncertainties of the future.
I told Sienna all about Spencer the sasquatch, and I gave her a hug anyway when we started cracking up over other dumb stuff we’d done that the incident reminded us of.
If I was going to get diarrhea, I might as well get it from one of my favorite people in the world, especially when our time together was running out.
“Shh,” I whispered to Duncan at five minutes after midnight. The halls were as quiet as they’d been the day before, and I really didn’t want to wake up anyone, even if the only person I’d met who lived on the first floor was Franklin.
I figured the elder needed his sleep. When he’d come into the kitchen halfway in the middle of Sienna reminding me about the time we had gotten into an argument with a neighbor at our apartment complex over his inability to park in a single spot, Franklin had already been yawning. I’d gladly helped him make five pounds of chicken while he listened to Sienna talking about issues within her family, which had taken up the whole dinner, and he’d even gotten in on the boyfriend troubles her sister was going through. Agnes had eventually wandered in, going straight for the elder, then Duncan, and ignoring the rest of us.
Dinner had given me the opportunity to study the elder, who I’d caught side-eyeing me more than once.
Did he suspect something about me?
I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t going to overthink it more than I needed to. It’d been one whole day, and it had been a pretty good one, all things considered. And now, the donut and I were going to wrap up the night with a little game of tag, just the two of—
“Oh my fuuu—” I screeched, bending down before I could even think about what I was doing and scooping Duncan up into my arms, ready to take off running back up the stairs and lock us in our room.
“You said a bad word,” the pale-haired girl standing in the hallway—the pitch-black hallway in the middle of the night—said.
For a second, I’d really thought the house was haunted by Victorian-era children, but I realized the little girl wasn’t a ghost because her body wasn’t translucent. Thank you, good night vision.
Duncan, unlike me and my instincts, wagged, not even slightly alarmed.
Why was he…? Oh. Oh. “Agnes?” I whispered.
“What are you doing?” she answered in the exact kind of voice I would’ve imagined coming out of her mouth. Unimpressed, flat, high in the way girls that age were capable. The most surprising thing of all was that she had unicorn pajamas on. I would’ve expected her to have Wednesday Addams’s pajamas from the expert level side-eye she was capable of in her mini wolf form.
She was so cute in the way a jellyfish was. You could look, but maybe you should second-guess touching it.
Duncan’s tail wagged some more against my side, and I set him down. He trotted over to his new friend. She gave him an affectionate pet, whispering something so quiet I couldn’t hear. Just as quickly as he greeted her, he came back, pouncing on my feet before sticking his butt in the air, paws stretched out ahead of him.
God, he was so cute. I lived in a constant state of wanting to bear hug him. His ears grazed the floor, and I was going to need to give them a wipe. When he’d been really young, I’d used a hair tie to hold them back when he ate.
“I didn’t recognize you.” I gave her a little smile. “Are you okay? Can’t sleep?”
Agnes shook her head, so I was going to take it that she was fine but couldn’t wind down. She was too young to be filled with worries, but there wasn’t much I could do about that. What I could do instead was be nicer to her.
Even if she seemed like a snitch and she didn’t seem to like me.
But there was a reason for her distrust, I just didn’t know what it was yet.
I hesitated for a second, watching her just standing there, silently. “Where do you sleep?” I tried.
She lifted her arm and pointed at the door next to her.