Chapter 25

"This is more like it." I sighed and shuffled to the left of my bed, away from the spring biting into my ass.

Comfort was overrated. Who wanted a mattress that was all soft and shit, like they were sleeping on a cloud? Where was the challenge in that? Sure, when Gio went to bed, he probably drifted off right away, but I bet he couldn't fall asleep in dirt and rocks.

I could. Hell, once I passed out for three hours with my feet in the swamp.

My toes were extra wrinkly when I woke up, but I wasn't tired like everyone else. I was ready to continue the hike with Memphis's drill sergeant dad. I'd like to see a Mancini's pampered ass do that.

I didn't need fancy memory foam or sweet smelling jasmine scent. Nope, I preferred stiff and springy, with regular old fabric softener.

I looked down at the faded comforter underneath me. Although I wouldn't argue a new blanket. One that maybe had enough padding to muffle the ding of a text on my phone, perhaps.

Memphis: You can't stay mad at me forever.

I begged to differ. In fact, my record for holding a grudge was fifteen years and twenty-seven days. What Tammy Fritz did, I had no idea. But I knew she did something. And until she apologized for it, she would remain on my enemies" list. I wasn't completely unreasonable.

Memphis: I know you still love me.

Love was an exaggeration, although I would love to punch him in the face right now.

Memphis: Remember our pinky pact.

Okay, first off we were like five. And secondly, he was just trying to get me to respond. I was not falling for it.

Memphis: I bet Cindy texts her friends back.

Ah, traitor.

Memphis: Do I need to come over there?

I wouldn't answer the door.

Memphis: You can't avoid me forever, Nova. We go to the same school.

Technicality.

Memphis: You'll see me tomorrow.

Me: Not if I keep my eyes closed.

Ah ha…

I stopped and looked down at the phone now in my hand. Damnit.

Memphis: How are you going to see anything if you walk around with your eyes closed?

Me: I'll figure it out.

Memphis: You trip over your own feet with your eyes open.

Me: That just means I'm used to bumping into things and falling down.

Memphis: You cried for a week when you stubbed your toe.

Me: I was six!

And I was pretty sure I broke it.

Memphis: You do know you'll still be able to hear me with your eyes closed, right?

Well, there was only one response to that…

Me: I'm going to put itching powder in your underwear.

Memphis: Then I'll save your eyebrows.

Fine. I didn't like them, anyway. And…

Me: I hate you.

Memphis: No, you don't, you love me.

Me: No I don't.

Memphis: You seem to forget that I know you better than you know yourself.

No he didn't.

Memphis: That's why you haven't been able to push me away like everyone else.

I didn't push people away. Was it my fault that most people couldn't handle my attitude—which, by the way wasn't some defense mechanism. I was simply a realist. Despite what Memphis thought.

The world wasn't full of fluffy love filled rainbows. It was a dark pit of despair and misery. The sooner he could accept that, then the less disappointed he would be. Unfortunately Memphis had this nagging voice in the back of his head called hope.

I loved my best friend but his optimism was annoying. When we were kids he was the one who believed in Santa and the Tooth Fairy. I tried to tell him they weren't real, but he wouldn't believe me. Too be fair the only reason I knew the truth was because I caught Kato slipping money under my pillow one night.

My childhood wasn't completely disappointing. I used to look forward to Christmas until my father came home one night with two dead deer in his truck. After that I was convinced he killed Santa Clause.

So, I did believe at one point. Know what that got me? Nightmares about my father going for a hunting trip in the north pole. That's all hope was. One giant nightmare. Yet Memphis still held onto it.

Dumbass.

Me: I happen to like being hated.

Memphis: How's that working out for you with Gio.

Me: Are you trying to insinuate that Gio likes me?

Memphis: Are you trying to deny that you might like him?

There was only one explanation for that statement.

Me: Does you dad know you're on drugs?

I could practically hear the sigh with his next text.

Memphis: Nova.

My eyes rolled as I grumbled out a sigh and typed in…

Me: Memphis.

Memphis: Maybe if you stopped fighting everything, you might find some happiness.

Me: You're kidding right?

Happiness and Gio Mancini weren't two things I put together.

Memphis: Not everyone's happily ever after looks how they thought it would.

Me: This isn't a fairy tale.

Memphis: Fairy tales are overrated.

That I would agree with him on.

Me: Well, as fun as this conversation has been, I have a date with 4 Non Blondes.

Memphis: I feel the need to point out that you only sing along to horrible songs when you're trying to avoid feeling something.

Just because I liked to listen to certain songs when I was in a particular mood didn't mean anything. It was better than murdering someone.

Although Memphis would argue that my voice had the power to deafen people, and I did get kicked out of the church choir, but who could sing in A flat? What even was that? Flat? As if the note was previously inflated then popped.

Memphis: What are you trying not to feel, Nova?

Me: Well, my attention is drawn back to my previous statement of I hate you, so, I'm going to go with that.

Memphis: Fine. You go listen to music. I prefer to do something more useful with my time. Like give into the way I feel, and let my boyfriend fuck the shit out of me.

Eww.

Me: You do that.

Memphis: I will. Have fun with 4 Non Blondes. I'm going to have some mind blowing orgasms.

Again, eww.

Me: My ears are about to orgasm so take that.

With that, I clicked on my song, dropped my phone on the mattress and flopped back on my bed.

I sunk back into the music and sang along, but couldn't get what Memphis said out of my head. Obviously, he didn't know what he was talking about.

If I liked Gio Mancini then I would've missed him today, which I didn't. Yes, I may have mentioned a couple of times that I thought it was odd that I hadn't heard from him since this morning, and he wasn't in school, but that came from suspicion and nothing else.

Besides, Gio wasn't the only absence at school. Atlee also wasn't there. One missing asshole from the trio was a pleasant surprise. Two was a problem. Especially when the third followed me around all day like a guard. That meant Gio left someone there to watch me. As if he thought I was going to do something.

What could I possibly do when Gio wasn't there? It wasn't like I was going to break into his locker and go through his stuff. That plan when out the window when I saw Darry shadowing me.

Needless to say, I was not impressed. Neither was Darry when I told him to stop grabbing my ass a little too loud in chapel.

I'd never seen a nun move so fast in my life. Sister Mary Of The Hallway was across the room cracking a ruler off his hand before I could blink. Between her and Sutton, I was starting to wonder if divine devotion gave people superpowers.

I was also pretty sure Darry wanted to kill me now, but he'd be in detention for at least a week. So, I had time.

If only Memphis was in chapel, then I could've gotten his ass thrown in detention too. But no, he had mascot stuff to do. So, I made sure to tell Chuck about Greg. Who was Greg? I had no idea, but Chuck now thought Memphis had a crush on him. Let's see how many mind blowing orgasms he has now.

At least I accomplished something. I still had no idea what Gio was up too though. The last time I heard from him was this morning when sent me a text telling me to be good. I replied with a bite me dickhead. That was over eight hours ago and he hadn't responded.

I didn't even see the bubbles pop up to tell me he was typing something. It was just silence, which was never a good thing when it came to Gio Mancini.

What is he up to?

I heard the screen door creek open, followed by my sister's voice. "Nova, are you home?"

The truck parked out front should've answered that question, but whatever.

"In here." I called back.

A few seconds later Veda appeared in my doorway. "Why is the sidewalk blue?"

"I mistimed the detonation."

The second spray-paint can however went off right on time. It was fantastic. Billy and Kyle would be blue for week.

Veda blinked a couple of times before saying, "What?"

What was so hard to understand about that explanation? "The detonation device on the spray paint went off early."

I couldn't make it any clearer than that.

She gave me that dumbfounded look again. "Why would you have a detonation device on spray paint."

"We were out of shaving cream."

Once again, she asked, "What?"

Was it repeating day?

"We were out of shaving cream," I explained. "So, I had to blow up paint."

Guerilla warfare was messy.

There was a moment of silence where she stared at me before she shook her head. "Whatever. You better clean that up before Maw Maw gets home."

"It's fine." I waved my hand. "Most of it got on my truck."

It kind of looked like I ran over a bunch of Smurfs.

Veda didn't leave after that, she continued to stand in the doorway. That's when I noticed that the baby wasn't with her, which was odd. She usually picked him up right after work.

I sat up and eyed her Sunnyside uniform. "Where's Knox?"

"He's at Winnie and Sue's."

"You haven't picked him up yet?"

Last week she had a panic attack because she was two minutes late.

"Well," she walked into my room and sat on the edge of my bed. "I thought we could talk."

Talk? We never talked. Not even before everything happened.

"How was your day?"

My eyes narrowed. "Suspicious."

Between my sister suddenly wanting to chat and Gio's absence I seriously starting to mistrust this day.

"School isn't supposed to be suspicious, Nova."

"Clearly you've forgotten your high school experience."

"I had fun in high school."

That was because Veda was the quintessential popular cheerleader. Boys wanted to date her and she had a ton of friends – who ditched her the second shit got real.

"Maybe you should join a club?"

Really? "What about me makes you think I'm the club type?"

"You could be." Veda shifted her gaze my way. "It wouldn't hurt to have a little school spirit."

Says who? "Unless that spirit involves alcohol, I'm not interested."

"You can't drink your way through your teenage years."

"I'm pretty sure I can."

"Alcohol just causes more problems." She stared off at something across the room and muttered, "Trust me."

Veda never talked about what happened that night, but I'd always had my suspicions that she was drugged. Rita and her used to go out every weekend, and I hadn't seen her touch a drop since.

"Don't worry." I gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "I'm careful."

Kind of. There was the whole bonfire incident, but Gio got me out of there. I still had no idea why he did that.

"Anyway." Veda shook off whatever she was thinking about and changed the subject. "How is school?"

"Well, I go to school with the asshole trio, so it's a daily game of survival and paranoia."

Especially when two of said trio weren't in school.

My eyes dropped back down to my phone.

Still no text from Gio. He was definitely up to something. Come on, since when was he too busy to torment me? What was he doing? I had an idea about what Atlee was doing. Or should I say who? Not that I knew who it was, nor did I care. I just knew it had to involve a girl. Although, it could be a guy. I'd heard things. Mind you, that was Memphis gossip, but still.

"Every school has assholes." Veda sighed. "Do you remember Bennet Torres?"

Bennet was the typical jock jerk, which was totally forgettable in my opinion. Honestly, if it wasn't for his cousin Noah, who went missing in Florida a couple of years ago, I would have no idea who he was.

Veda hung her head and gave it a shake. "I can't believe I went out with that guy."

I could. She was a cheerleader, he was a football player, and they were both popular. Wasn't exactly like trying to mix oil and water. Gio and I, on the other hand…

"Some people just don't belong together."

Veda cocked a brow. "Are you talking about someone in particular?"

Yeah, he went by fuckface and told me to be good this morning. I'd been analyzing those words all day. Telling me to be good indicated that he thought I'd have a reason to act out. Not that it took much. I got Memphis grounded last month because he got the last helping of Maw Maw's gumbo. Be polite to company my ass.

"Nova," Veda grabbed my hand and dipped her head to look in my eyes. "What happened last weekend?"

My eyes narrowed. "It was a normal weekend."

Why would she think it was anything else?

"Are you sure, because you looked pretty shaken up when you came home?"

No, I was pissed off. There was a difference.

"Don't worry Veda, some strange man didn't corner me in a back alley."

Pretty sure Gio would kill anyone who tried to corner me anywhere. There was an odd comfort in knowing that. I didn't like it. Nothing about Gio Mancini should be comfortable.

"It's just that you haven't been acting like yourself lately."

That made me pause. My sister had no idea who myself was. She barely paid attention to herself.

"Why are you here, Veda?"

The only place Veda relaxed was in her room. She rarely came into mine, and she certainly didn't sit down on my bed.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "We haven't talked in a while and I thought it would be nice."

Nice?Did she have a different recollection of our childhood? It was odd if we got along for more than a day. Veda was the princess. I was the annoying one that rolled around in the mud. I loved her–she was my sister–but blood was all we had in common.

"You, want to talk to me?"

"Is there something wrong with wanting to know what's going on in your life?"

Uh huh?"Yes. You don't care what's going on in my life."

She looked insulted by that statement. "Of course I do."

"Since when?"

"I'm your sister, Nova."

"No offence Veda, but my life is none of your business. You can barely handle your own."

Don't get wrong, I got it. She had Knox and her own shit to deal with. She didn't need to deal with mine as well.

"It's my job to look out for you."

Pretty sure I was the one who looked out for her, but okay.

"If something's going on," she placed her hand on my shoulder and once again looked in my eyes. "You can tell me. We'll figure it out together."

Okay, this was getting really weird. "Did Rita give you more drugs?"

That would explain her sudden interest in my life.

"For Christ sake, Nova," Veda threw her hands up in the air. "I know about the deal you made."

That could mean so many things.

"Listen, how I decide to help Mr. Garibaldi with his ongoing rodent war, is my business."

Technically it was our war – after one of those raccoons stole my cookie I was invested. No one takes my chocolate chips.

Veda sighed and rolled her eyes. "You know what I'm talking about."

I really didn't.

"Gio Mancini." Veda clarified.

My heart skipped for a second. Did Veda know? No, there was no way. Just because she said his name, didn't mean anything. She probably just heard Memphis and I talking or something.

"What about him?"

"You know what I'm talking about." I could feel the judgment in her stare. "What would Kato say?"

That depended. "What would Kato say about what?"

For all I knew Veda might just think I was dating him or something. At least I prayed that was the case.

"He wouldn't want you trading yourself for him."

Damnit.When all else failed go for plausible deniability.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I think you do."

"And I think you need to find that bottle of pills Rita left here."

Veda crossed her arms while I narrowed my gaze.

I couldn't help but feel a bit of nostalgia. This was like the stare downs we used to have as kids. She'd yell at me to get out of her room and I'd sit on the floor and refuse. It was great.

This was not.

"I know everything, Nova."

She knew nothing.

"What's your excuse going to be for Maw Maw this weekend?"

Okay, maybe she knew something.That didn't mean I was going to admit to anything.

"Why would I need an excuse for the weekend?"

"Nova…"

"Veda…"

"Ugh." She rolled her eyes. "If you don't want to talk about it fine. Just tell me one thing…" She reached out and grabbed my hand. "Did Gio touch you?"

The pained spark toying with her face both made my heart ache and pissed me off. Once upon a time I thought my sister was a strong and powerful woman. Now she was just a hollow shell walking around.

"You can tell me."

Why? So we could bond? Unlike her I wasn't traumatized by what happened, because it wasn't traumatizing. I liked it when Gio touched me, and I hated her for reminding me of that.

"It helps to talk about it."

"Right." I scoffed out a snicker. "Because it did you so much good."

It had been two years since she went anywhere other than work. Veda hid in this house and avoided the world. I refused to let someone break me like that.

"I'm just trying to help…"

"I don't need your help." I cut her off. "I'm not you Veda. I'm not going to lock myself up because Gio Mancini fucked me."

Her big eyes rounded. "So he did rape you?"

Oh my God.

I rolled my eyes and tore my hand out of hers. "Not every sexual encounter is rape, Veda."

"It is if you didn't want it."

"Maybe I did?"

Huh? For some reason that didn't feel like a lie. Damnit. I was going to slap Memphis first thing tomorrow.

She shook her head. "There's no way you wanted it."

"Why? Because you wouldn't?"

"No." She snapped. "I know you traded yourself to the Mancini's, Nova. Gio's brother told me."

That was a new development and pretty hard evidence to argue with. I was much more interested in something else.

"What do you mean Gio's brother told you?"

Her voice dropped down to just above a whisper. "Romeo came to see me."

I paused as what my sister said sunk in. "Why would Romeo come to see you?"

That didn't make any sense. Veda had nothing to do with my deal. A thought that I started revaluating when her face instantly paled.

"He just did. Maybe he was in the neighborhood?"

Who was pulling the plausible deniability card now?

I didn't know much about Gio's older brother, but I knew enough to know that he wouldn't be in the neighborhood unless he wanted to be in the neighborhood.

Meaning he had a reason to see my sister, and it wasn't because of my arrangement. If anything she would be the thing they used against me, and therefore had no need to know shit.

Veda was hiding something.

"Why was Romeo here, Veda?"

"He just was."

My sister was the kid that would bust herself for stealing from the cookie jar. Lying was not her forte. Over the years I'd learned what her tells were. Her voice would go up in pitch while her nose crinkled and she avoided eye contact. All of which she was doing right now.

"He just was?"

"That's right." She nodded.

"You're telling me that Romeo Mancini – heir to the Mancini throne – just decided to pop by and say hi?"

"Be serious, Nova."

I was being very serious. "Why was he here?"

"It doesn't matter."

I thought it did. "Are you two best friends now, because I'm not sure Rita will like that."

In fact I was pretty sure Rita would gut any Mancini that came near my sister.

"This isn't about me, Nova. It's about you selling yourself to Gio."

Ah, deflection. Too bad I was the queen of that tactic. That shit wouldn't work on me.

"I'm much more interested in your relationship with Romeo."

"There is no relationship." Veda argued.

"But there must be. Otherwise why would he stop by."

She didn't have a response for that one.

So, I continued to pry. "Do you guys have slumber parties and drink sweet tea while braiding each other's hair?"

There was image I didn't need.

"It doesn't matter why he was here. What matters is getting you out of this ridicules deal."

"Why would we do that?"

Veda stopped dead and rolled her eyes up to mine. "Because, you're in danger."

Technically leaving the house everyday was dangerous. I could get hit by a bus on my way to school. But that was beside the point.

"And what about Kato? How do you propose we help him, because your method of hiding and ignoring the world doesn't seem to be working."

"Kato wouldn't want this, and you know it."

"Well, he's not here to stop me now is he?"

"We're just trying to take care of you."

That was so funny I couldn't help but snicker. "You're doing a bang up job."

Veda seemed genuinely surprised by my statement. "I'm trying, Nova."

"No you're not. You're hiding. But don't worry about it." I stuck an earbud in my ear and pressed play. "I learned to take care of myself a long time ago."

"Nova…"

Ugh, why couldn't she just go away.

Veda tugged on the cord, popping my earbud out. "Will you please talk to me."

"You want to talk? Okay. Why was Romeo here?"

"Will you let that go?"

No, I didn't think I would. The whole purpose in making that deal was to keep my family safe. Not to have one of them show up here and threaten my sister. The only question was why? What advantage did scaring Veda give the Mancini's. They never did anything unless it benefited them.

So, no, I would not let this go. Plus, I was pissed off and wanted to take it out on someone.

"What was he doing here, Veda?" I tried one last time.

"It doesn't matter."

"Alright." I got off the bed and snatched my sweater off the back of my door. "If you won't tell me, then maybe Romeo will."

Right after, I punch him in the face.

Veda followed when I stormed out.

"Nova please," she plead. "Leave it alone."

I stopped with my hand on the screen door and looked back at her. "Tell me what's going on and I will."

Maybe.

She just stood there, fidgeting nervously with her hands.

"No?" I asked, giving her one last chance.

When she remained silent, I nodded and headed out the door.

"Nova, stop." Veda yelled after me.

"You had your chance." I called back.

Veda could turn her back to everything if she wanted, but I'd be damned if I was going to let anybody traumatize my sister again. My family had been through enough, and I was done.