Chapter 31

31

"Why were you playing with them?" Brianna asked. She was trying not to throw a fit or anything. But she'd practically panicked, seeing her sister playing with those girls like that. "Do you know who they were?"

"No. How can I? I never met them before. They were fun. I have friends here now." And she was happy. Maybe the kid really had just been bored all week? There weren't any of her toys around—maybe Brianna still had her own old things upstairs in the attic? Leena could play with those dolls and stuff, if she wanted. Brianna would have to have the housekeeper wipe the dust off first, though. Leena had really bad asthma, sometimes.

"They aren't your friends. You've just met them."

"So? We played together. That makes them my Texas friends now." Leena looked at her. Like it actually worked like that, or something. "Why? Don't you like them?"

"Well. I don't know them. They are little kids. I don't hang out with little kids. I'm an adult. I'm too busy for kids."

"Oh. Do you have any friends?" The little girl just asked a million questions. Constantly. She never shut up. "Like a best friend and stuff?"

"I have friends."

"Who? Don't they come over sometimes? Cavi says that her mommy has lots of friends that come to their house for parties and stuff. They drink the stinky stuff and laugh a lot. Cavi doesn't like it when they do, so she hides. She has a place under the stairs like Harry Potter."

"Who?"

"Harry Potter." Leena looked at her like she was stupid for a moment. "Everybody knows Harry Potter, Bri. Everybody."

"Well, I don't. So not everybody."

"Nyma and Nyra like Harry Potter. And Maisy. Maisy doesn't have a daddy or a mommy now. They died. Her daddy was really sick and stuff and he died. And her mommy died in a car on Halloween. Maisy hates Halloween forever now. Nyra said."

Brianna recognized the kids Leena had played with. How could she not? Brianna had made a point to know everything she could about the Colesons. She didn't know the kids' names or anything. But she knew about those women.

Everything was all about the Colesons now. Everywhere.

It was stupid. "They are just a stupid family of poor women and kids. They aren't the type of people you should play with, young lady."

Brianna stopped. Right there where they were walking.

As she heard her stepfather's meanest voice coming out of her own mouth.

No.

She didn't want to even think like that.

She didn't want to be like him. She just didn't. Ever. He had been the meanest man she had ever known. How often had he told her the same thing whenever she'd wanted to play with kids at that same park they'd just left? And Banks had been right there, agreeing with his father like always.

Banks had never stood up for Brianna the way Bethany had.

Sometimes, all Brianna had wanted to do was play with all the other kids like Powell and Brandt had been allowed to. They were allowed to play with everybody, no matter how little money the other kids' families had. It would always look like so much fun.

Sometimes, her stepfather would make her leave and go home, just so she didn't play with the wrong kind of people.

It had hurt back then. And been incredibly embarrassing. Until she'd eventually started to pretend she just didn't care.

She had forgotten that.

But she was over that now. She really was.

"Why? They were nice. And their mommy—Nyra and Nyma's mommy. Not Maisy's. But Maisy lives with them now too. Since her old mommy is dead. Like my old mommy is dead too. Nyra and Nyma's mommy gave me a Band-Aid for my hand. She put medicine on it too. And told me it would be okay. She's a doctor. Doctors are good people. I told her my daddy was a doctor too. But she didn't know him. I don't think."

"Did you tell her his name?" Brianna's blood actually chilled for a moment. If the Colesons...Timothy...It could be bad for him. For her half brother.

Really, really bad if the Colesons knew about Timothy. Or Trey. Timothy really didn't want the Colesons to know about him.

Especially Trey. Trey was going to get into serious trouble someday. He'd probably get Timothy into trouble too. If he did, what would happen to Leena?

Brianna was the only family the kid had.

She didn't like Trey very much, but he was the only brother she had right now. And that mattered.

Well, this was her sister. She guessed Leena mattered too. And Trey was an adult, older than Brianna. Leena was just a little kid. Leena really didn't have anybody in the world but Timothy. Except Brianna.

That gave Brianna a bit of a sick feeling in her stomach when she thought about that.

"She asked me what my name was. And said she didn't know any doctors with our last name. But I didn't get to tell her that my daddy has a different last name than me. He's Dr. Timothy Grundenman. He's very important."

"They just aren't the right family for you to play with, Leena. They just aren't." The last thing she wanted was Leena getting mixed up with the Colesons, even the kid ones. It just wasn't really that safe.

"Iagan was really nice. Nyra and Nyma's cousin. He's almost eleven. He didn't tell us to go away. And he let me throw the basketball too."

"They aren't your friends. Remember that."

"I have friends. But you don't. Probably because you are too mean." Leena scrunched her face up at Brianna. She stuck her tongue out. "You're just Pee-anna."

Something about it made Brianna laugh. It was kind of cute, in a really bratty way and everything. Her little sister didn't sit back and just take crap off of people. Even at only eight. That was a good thing, right?

"I do, too, have friends."

"Who? Not your boyfriend either. You can't say him. He's a boogerhead anyway."

Brianna gave it an honest thought. A friend was someone you could count on when the chips were down, right? Someone who wouldn't hurt you just because they wanted to. Someone you trusted.

Someone you talked to when you had problems. Someone you weren't related to, who just had to talk to you either. Someone who helped you when you needed it—even when you didn't ask.

Her gaze landed on their house. The Barratts. "Right there. That house right there."

"What about it? It looks like all the other houses here. Very weird. Why is there a fence around the whole neighborhood, anyway? It's weird. Like we are in jail. Azkaban!"

Sometimes, Leena said really weird things.

"The gate is to keep the riffraff out. That's where my best friend Powell's parents live. We have been friends since we were in kindergarten together. Me, Powell, and her twin brother."

"How can a brother be a twin? Nyma and Nyra are twins. They are identical. That means twins have to look the exact same. Like Fred and George."

Fred and George? They had to be kids from her school, right? What boring names. Didn't their parents have any creativity at all?

"They just are. Powell is my best friend." And Powell was right there. Talking with her brothers in their parents' front window. Brianna didn't know what made her do it, but she waved.

Just like she'd expected, Powell waved right back.

Powell always did. She always talked to Brianna too. And whenever Brianna had needed anything, help or something, Powell had been there.

Without Brianna even really having to ask sometimes either. And every time Brianna had asked, Powell had come. Immediately. Every time Brianna had ever really needed her.

Brianna had never really thought about that before.

Powell had even been at Brianna's stepfather's funeral. And Brianna's mother's five years before that. And Banks's. Powell had been at Banks's funeral too.

Powell had stood right there next to Brianna and Bethany when Powell really didn't have to. Helping deal with the crowds and curiosity seekers who had just been there because they wanted to know what Banks had really been doing before he'd been murdered. They'd asked so many mean questions that day.

Powell had even gotten mad.

Powell had kept them from bothering her and Bethany too much.

Powell could be kind of fierce sometimes, even though she was really little.

No one else in Brianna's circle had done that. They'd stayed away, mostly. And some of them hadn't ever bothered to come back around. But Powell had been there. Powell might actually be the only real friend besides Jack that Brianna had.

Brianna didn't like how that made her feel at all.

What had she done so wrong in her life that she didn't have anyone she really mattered to anymore?

She mattered to Bethany, though, right? Maybe. She was Bethany's little sister, after all.

She didn't know why she did it, but she wrapped her fingers around Leena's and held her little sister's hand.

"That's my best friend right there."