Chapter 12 Rhea
“That one,” I say, lifting the beer to my lips and pointing with my other hand to the board.
“I put my axe between his eyebrows.” Cosy waits for me to roll my dice, and it hits a seventeen with a plus three advantage.
She takes it as a death blow and moves on to Sunday, who’s making faces at Adeline through the laptop.
“How’s couch surfing?” she asks me after Sunday takes her turn.
“Actually, I found a room to rent,” I say, sliding Kaia a note under Cosy’s nose. Cosy eyes me, suspiciously. “It’s nothing…” I smirk.
Kaia unfolds the paper and cackles before looking over the board and flipping through her notes from the last session.
“You did?” Adeline’s eyebrows lift on the screen.
“Yeah—Bri’s letting her stay in his spare room,” Sunday says before I can.
After Brighton had caved and said yes, the first person I’d called was Sunday.
I wanted to make sure it was okay with her before I moved in with her older brother, but she hadn’t seemed bothered.
If anything, she encouraged the idea, saying that it would be good for everyone, including Daisy.
“You’re living above the Hollow?” Jensen’s voice comes from the background, and Adeline mutes her camera, scowling at him, and then smiles. “Sorry, leaving,” Jensen says, his voice becoming nothing but an echo as Adeline returns to the conversation.
“At this point, you should just let him play,” Cosy says with a soft smile.
“Yeah. For the time being, I just hope that the renovations don’t take as long as they’re predicting,” I say, as Kaia enacts our plan. Cosy has us pinned down in an abandoned house that Adeline just had to explore, and now we are being attacked by a horde of goblins.
“What’s the timeline?” Adeline asks.
“Six months minimum,” I groan.
“That’s brutal,” Cosy mutters, and I’m not sure if she’s talking about the length or whatever is happening in the game.
“And your brother is terrifying, Sunday,” I say. “Did you know he has everything labeled?”
“Yeah, like right down to his underwear,” Sunday laughs, her focus on what Kaia’s doing behind the mundane conversation. “I give it a week before you’re at each other's throats.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I pout.
“You’re a slob,” four voices chorus at once, and we all start to laugh.
“No offense, Reaper, but you’ve never been neat a day in your life,” Kaia says while rolling an eighteen, plus two with her stealth. She manages to get around the goblins without being noticed and slits the queen's throat without skipping a beat.
Sunday swiftly steps in with her dice, rolling a fifteen and saying, “I’m going to cast ‘Animate Dead’ on the goblin queen.”
Cosy groans. “Next campaign, I’m making all the monsters harder.”
“Sure you will,” Kaia purrs.
“The spell hits, and the Goblin Queen takes a massive breath as she wakes, completely under Mirage’s spell for the next twenty-four hours.”
“Are they reimbursing you at all? For damage—time—anything?” Adeline asks me, as Jensen sets a plate on the table beside her and hangs over her shoulders to listen.
“I don’t know yet.” I shrug, a little defeated and definitely over having this conversation with everyone. “It’s just a waiting game now.”
“If you need a good lawyer…” Jensen says, and Adeline pinches his arm, making him yip before retreating out of frame again.
“Thank you for the offer, but I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. I just want to get through the next couple of months with my head down.” I say, and the girls agree, but Kaia stares at me with mischief in her eyes.
Yes, that includes keeping Brighton Black a ruler's distance away from my underwear.
“If it doesn’t work out with Bri, you can always go back to stealing our couches; door’s always open,” Sunday reminds me.
“I’m not looking to add back pain to my list of worries right now,” I tease her, and she rolls her eyes at me, lifting her drink to her lips.
“We should make a bet.” Kaia slaps the table with her hands. “How long Bright and Rhea will go without—”
“Killing each other,” I cut her off because I can see her actively trying to start crap.
“That’s what I was going to say.” She smiles at me, shifting in her chair to straighten out and get serious. “So who wants to play?”
“I’ll bet twenty that it doesn’t last the week,” Sunday is the first to chime in.
“I give them a month,” Adeline pipes up.
“Twenty-three days,” Jensen yells from off-screen, and Kaia laughs.
“Really?” Adeline glares at him over the laptop.
“Cosy?” Kaia looks over to her as I sit silent and let them get it out of their system.
“Two months. Reaper stays clean for three weeks—then she slips and drives him to the brink of insanity.”
“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence, you guys.” I shake my head and finish my beer. “What I really need is advice on how to survive him.”
“Stay out of his hair,” Sunday says quietly, “only be in the apartment for sleeping, it’s not like you aren’t busy.”
“Avoidance,” I laugh. “Perfect.”
“Oh, come on, Rhea, you have to admit this entire situation is hilariously awkward. It’s Sunday’s brother,” Cosy says.
“Kaia and Boone have zero boundaries, and I’m the one making things weird?” I groan and nearly snap my pen between my fingers as I lean back in the dining room chair.
“Bobo and Killer don’t count; they’ve never had boundaries,” Sunday says without looking at me. “This is weird.” She waves her pen in my direction. “I’m still stuck on how you even convinced him.”
“Did you give him a Hollow Special?” Kaia asks with a laugh, and we all give her disgusted looks. “What? I meant her charm!”
“Sure you did,” I sigh, “I just asked him…more than once…”
“In the voice?” Sunday narrows her eyes. “You did the voice, didn’t you?”
“I might have done the voice on the last one,” I conceded to her interrogation instantly.
“Yeah, a stone statue couldn’t resist that voice,” Kaia purrs, “Thing one was screwed.” She adds, leaning over the table, and her eyes flicker to meet mine. “Means he has a weakness.”
“Or I just annoyed him enough for him to break,” I argue.
“Have you met either of his siblings?” Cosy snorts, and Kaia snaps her fingers in agreement. “He’s quite possibly the only person in the world who uses the word no with them.”
“Hey, sometimes he says yes to me…” Sunday protests and looks around the table.
“And then he immediately does what he says he wasn’t going to do,” Adeline says, sipping on her beer. “Admit it, Sunny, Bright is the living definition of a brick wall.”
“He’s just…” Sunday rolls her eyes. “Fine, but someone had to say no to us! Our parents were never around to do it, he’s stone cold because someone had to be!” She says, a little upset that we’re teasing Brighton.
“We love that grumpy groucher, Sunny.” Kaia reaches out and gives her a pet on the head, “The entire situation is…”
“Perplexing,” Cosy finishes her sentence.
“Yeah, well, it won’t last long if you four have any say,” I groan. “Can we finish the session? I'm exhausted.” I say, a little over being teased as well.
The girls don’t drop it for the rest of the night, going back and forth with theories about why Brighton had said yes to me renting the room, but in all honesty.
I think he was being nice because I forced his hand.
Sunday sends me back to the Hollow with my bags and a grocery bag of snacks for Daisy.
The Hollow is still busy when I pull the Bronco into the back lot, and I cut the engine but sit in the front seat with my eyes closed for a little while.
The sounds of the city are some of my favorites.
Guessing how everyone’s night is going by the distant laughter and hollering.
My phone vibrates, interrupting the quiet, and the screen flashes with my mother's face. I lean over and answer the call, “Hi, Mom.”
“Rhea! Your sister told me about the condo. What in the world happened?” she asks.
The main reason I hadn’t called her about the condo yet is that she’d been adamant that it was a bad purchase.
I think part of the reason she hates it is that she doesn’t want me so far away, but the distance is exactly the point. My mom is eccentric to say the least.
“It flooded,” I say, not really sure what else she wants if Rue already told her. I knew I shouldn’t have texted that fifteen-year-old snitch.
“Why didn’t you come home? Where are you staying? We can move Reid into Rue’s room to make space for you!” She starts to ramble.
To make space for you.
“No, no, you don’t have to do that. I’m staying with a friend.
Don’t take Reid’s room from him; he earned that,” I say, remembering how excited my brother was to have his own room when I moved out.
“And Rue doesn’t need to find out what teenage boys do in the dark just yet,” I add lightness to my sad tone to keep her from thinking I’m upset with anything she’s said.
“I wish you had called me,” she says, and I realize that I’ve failed in my damage control. “And Gabe could have helped.”
Gabe is my stepdad, a funny guy, really good to my mom and younger siblings, and has two kids of his own from another marriage.
Shana and Toby, both really cute kids. Nine and six.
It makes for the most chaotic family dinners.
Rue is the youngest of us at fifteen, and Reid turns seventeen this fall.
“I’m truly good, no help needed. I heard that Reid got accepted into the Hockey program?” I say. “That’s good, if he makes it through, it pays for his university, yeah?”
“Oh, he’s so excited, Rhea,” she instantly becomes distracted from my problems with the question. “Those hockey boys he loves… uh…"
"From the Huskies?" I interject, "North and Carter."
"Yes! I knew that! Mercer North and Kenji Carter are running the practices this year,” she says.
“Damn,” I scoff. They really pulled out the big guns.
“They’re training the next wave, at least that’s what Reid keeps saying about it.
He’s the youngest boy to be accepted, and he said three girls got into the program.
Isn’t that amazing?” One of the line cooks pops the back door open for a smoke, letting the light from the Hollow spill into the dark parking lot.
Mom continues to talk as I make my way from the Bronco, the moment of quiet lost completely.
I gather everything from the back, balancing it all over my shoulders and in my arms.
“Hey, Rhea!” she calls, and I give her a whispered, “Hey,” as I sneak in the back door and up the stairs to the apartment.
“They practice Thursday to Sunday, four days, isn’t that insane. I don’t know when those big fancy players even have time to win hockey games!” Mom says.
“Real superheroes,” I say, completely disconnected from the conversation. Reid had told me all of this already, but Mom would be damned if she didn’t believe it was her story to tell. “Hey Mom, I’m beat and have practice in the morning, so I’m going to let you go.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Rhea, I didn’t even realize what time it was. We’ll see you on Friday for dinner?” she asks quickly.
“Yeah, Mom, I have a game, but I’ll be over after,” I say.
“Oh, maybe we’ll come to the game! Make a whole day of it.” She claps on the other end, says her goodbyes, and hangs up.
I stare at the phone and sigh. She’s been saying that for three years.
They’d made time for two games in total over that time.
It’s not Mom’s fault; she tries her hardest, there’s just a lot going on in their house with four smaller kids and no spare time.
I settle myself against the wall, promising myself that tomorrow I’ll put everything together and away, but for now, I just want to crawl into bed and forget about today.
Morning comes faster than I expect, the light shining through the heavy navy curtains Brighton hung over the windows.
I look up at the clock and am grateful my body got me up in time for a shower and some toast before school.
I crawl from bed and decide on food first, going to the fridge for something I could steal until I get my own groceries after work today.
On the top shelf sits a paper bag beside Daisy’s lunch kit, labelled in scratchy dark marker with my name.
I smile at it softly, my fingers gripping the door of the fridge a little tighter.
Brighton had made me lunch. It seems so silly and trivial to feel fuzzy over something as simple as a bag of food, but it’s more than that to a girl who’s never had her lunch made for her.
He’s just being polite, Rhea, you whined about it yesterday. It means nothing.
I’d spend the rest of the day trying to convince myself of that.