Blackbird (A Stepbrother Romance #1)(30)

“We can’t, he’s…”

“He’s my son. You’re not my daughter.”

I wilted, looking at the floor.

She rested her hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “I didn’t mean it that way. I wish you were.”

Tell her, I screamed at myself. He’s a monster, you married a monster. He wants something from you, or else he’d never touch you. He hits me, he hurt me. Say something!

I didn’t. She hugged me again and I hugged her back, no matter how awkward I felt. I wondered what it would be like to have my own mother here, holding me. Then I walked out of the building with her, and waved goodbye as they drove off.

When I got back to the room there was a stranger in it. She startled me.

For a brief moment, I thought she was a man. It was the height. She was six feet tall, even in flat tennis shoes, and simply towered over me, but there was nothing else manly about her. Her clothes were as baggy and unflattering as mine, and she didn’t appear to be wearing any makeup, but she was pretty anyway, in a natural way. The most striking thing about her was her hair, wound in a long braid that hung almost to her waist, a rich auburn that shone like beaten copper when the sun hit it. She looked as started as I was, and for a moment she just stood there and stared at me. Then she thrust out her hand and took it.

“Hi. I’m Jennifer.”

We’d emailed, but there wasn’t much to say. She moved gracefully around the room, left and came back with a suitcase.

“Don’t you have anyone to help you?”

She shook her head.

“I will,” I said.

She had a car, a battered little Toyota. It was stuffed with suitcases and boxes and bags, like she’d packed all her worldly goods into the back and the seats. It took us an hour to unload it all. I started moving my things to the top bunk when we finished, and she stopped me.

“You got here first.”

“That’s not really fair.”

She shrugged. “Maybe we could flip for it?”

“Well, you’re bigger, you should be on the bottom.”

She blinked a few times. Her lip trembled.

“I don’t mean bigger like fat,” I said, quickly. “You’re taller than me, that’s all.”

This was getting off to a first class start.

“I’ll take the top,” she insisted.

After she made up her bed, I was shocked by how easily she got up there, with a fluid grace I wasn’t expecting from someone of her height.

“Are you going to that mixer thing?” she asked, leaning over the side.

I was still making up my bed. I had to put hospital corners on my sheets. “Of course. I signed a paper promising I would.”

“I don’t think they really care,” she said.

“Are you going?”

“I don’t want to,” she shrugged, and leaned back onto her bed. “I hate parties.”

“I’ve never been to a party.”

She let out a long sigh. “Consider yourself fortunate,” she said.

That was a rather odd thing to say, but I didn’t want to pry.

I really, truly was not planning to go, but I signed a form. They would know if I didn’t. It was scheduled for six o’clock, in daylight, so there were no worries there. Around five thirty I got up from reading on my bed.

“I’m going to go to the thing,” I said.

“It’s across the street. You’ll be very early.”

I shrugged. “On time is late.”

She rolled over and looked at me. She had gray eyes too, I noticed.

“You haven’t ever been to a party, have you?”

I shook my head. “You weren’t allowed to go?”

“Never invited.”

“Oh.”

“There was no one to invite me. I was home schooled. Tutors.”

I shifted uncomfortably on my feet and rubbed my arms. Jennifer sat up, and slid to the floor with the same languid grace with which she’d climbed up. She spun her desk chair around and sat on it facing backwards, leaning on the back.

“We’re supposed to talk,” she said.

I sat down on the bed.

“What should we talk about?”

“Thank you for helping me carry my things. I appreciate it.”

“You have a lot of stuff.”

She shrugged. “It’s everything I own. I’m not going back. I already signed the papers to stay here over the winter break. I’m going to be in the room a lot. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Okay.”

“Um,” she said, her face turning red. “I don’t like undressing around people. Have you been to the showers?”

“Yes, it’s not like a movie. There’s stalls with curtains.”

She shuddered. “I’ll make do. I might ask you to step out of the room now and then.”

“I can do that.” I shrugged.

“I’ll be in here a lot. I don’t go out much. I don’t have a boyfriend or anything.”

“Neither do I.”

“Oh.” She sounded surprised.

“Um,” I said, searching for something else to talk about. I would be leaving soon if I wanted to be on time. “What are you majoring?”