I give him a look.
“I can’t sleep right now,” I say, as if that’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Are you joking? I’m not sleeping until Parrish comes home.” Chasm’s face falls in a way that scares me. It scares me because he looks away, tries to hide it. “You don’t think Parrish is coming home, do you?”
“I think that this is going to go on a lot longer than you think. You can’t forgo sleep for … however long it takes to resolve this.” Chasm reaches out and pulls me into his arms, dragging me down to the bed and tucking my head beneath his chin. I go completely stiff, a sense of betrayal snaking through me. It should be Parrish holding me here like this, not Chasm. I shouldn’t like Chasm holding me either. It’s fucked. It’s so goddamn fucked. Told ya you were cringey, Dakota. “Shh. Just relax. I’ve got you, Little Sister. We’ll get through this together, no matter what it takes.”
His words ring a bit hollow, but even though I know I shouldn’t, I curl my fingers around his plaid tie and close my eyes. They’re so sore, and I’m so tired, and sleep could be a true escape for me …
I’m out before I can even finish the thought.
Parrish, I’m coming for you. Please be okay. We can’t end things the way we did. There’s so much more between us.
So much fucking more.
“Get up.”
I open my eyes to see Tess standing over me. Her eyes flick to the side, and it takes me a second to realize that it’s Chasm she’s staring at. Luckily, he’s sitting up beside me and not like … snuggling me the way he was earlier.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, my heart doing this strange flip-flop between fear and excitement. Is Parrish back? Is this nightmare over? Is he dead? Gods, please don’t let him be dead.
“You’re going to school today.” Tess tears Parrish’s blankets off of me and drops them to the floor. She can barely stand to look at me. Not that I blame her, after what I did yesterday.
“School?” I query back as Chasm grits his teeth beside me. He’s got my phone in his hand, so I’m guessing that Tess surprised him as much as she did me. She won’t realize it’s my phone though. At least, I hope she doesn’t. “You want me to go to school?”
Tess ignores me, turning and heading into the hallway without another word.
Chas and I exchange a look before we both climb out of bed. He hands the phone over—no new messages unfortunately—and heads into Parrish’s bathroom to freshen up. I retreat to my own room, showering in a daze, and donning my uniform.
It isn’t until I’m downstairs with my book bag that it really hits me.
She’s making me go to school? How can I possibly go to school when Parrish is in danger? I need to devote every waking second to trying to find him. You don’t get good at games by not playing them.
Then again, how can I refuse? Tess could send me back to New York which, for the first time since I got here, sounds like a really, really bad idea. The Slayer wants me to find Parrish? I’ll meet that fucking challenge—but I can’t do it from the other side of the country.
Chasm is waiting near the garage door, yawning and swinging his keys around his finger. He blinks several times and straightens up when he sees me, like he’s doing his best to wake himself from a stupor.
“I’m taking us all to school apparently,” he says, nodding his chin in Kimber’s direction as she appears from the living room. The way he looks at her … and the way he looks at me, there’s no comparison. He calls me ‘Little Sister’, but he doesn’t see me that way, does he? “Morning, Kim.”
“Morning,” she replies, but her usual spit and fire personality is so dimmed that I hardly recognize her. She’s squeezing her phone in one hand but refrains from her usual mindless scrolling. Kimber looks at me, and I’m taken aback by the raw expression on her face. “Do you even care that he’s gone? Why haven’t you been doing the search parties with Maxx?”
“Kimber.” It’s Maxx, standing near the entrance to the living room/kitchen area. He’s leaning his left shoulder against the doorjamb, as shirtless as Parrish and Chasm usually are. The sight of his naked body is almost staggering, but it’s like I’m viewing everything this morning through a hazy lens. I am most definitely not myself right now. “I’m sure they have their reasons,” he says, his voice like cool water as it crashes over me. A shock ripples through me, waking me up from my own stupor. “We all process trauma in our own ways.”
“Please take me to see her,” I whisper, squeezing my hands in the fabric of my skirt. Even though I’m speaking in a whisper, Maxx somehow hears me. That should’ve been a sign right there. He stands up suddenly, eyes widening as his gaze flicks to Kimber.
“See who?” she asks, turning an angry glare my way. I’m almost relieved to see it. Because if Kimber is pissed off at me, then the world hasn’t changed as much as I thought it did. It isn’t flipped upside down, it isn’t over, and there’s still hope for Parrish.
As long as I do what my father wants, there’s hope.
“Lumen, stupid,” Chasm snorts, taking over the big brother role while Parrish is out of the office. “You know they’re dating; everybody does. Get in the car.” He grabs Kimber’s hand and her face flushes red before the pair of them disappear into the garage.
Maxx pads over to me, and I close my eyes, fighting back tears. Something about him makes me want to be honest, to just let it all out, to tell him everything. But I can’t. I’m not even sure that Chasm finding out was a good thing. Last thing I should be doing is putting other people that I care about on the stag-masked psycho’s radar.
I look up at Maxx, and his face falls dramatically, losing that edge of irritation that he was trying so hard to hide.
“I must look pathetic,” I start with a self-deprecating laugh. “And I’m sorry about not helping with the search party.”
“You aren’t pathetic at all: your boyfriend is missing.” Maxx pauses, like he isn’t quite sure that was the right thing to say. Boyfriend? Is Parrish my boyfriend now? I have no idea because we never really got to talk about it, now did we? “If Maxine were missing, I’d be the same way.”
“You wouldn’t help search?” I retort dryly because I must really look like an asshole now. Berating Tess about Justin, destroying my birthday present and her most prized possession while spouting vitriol, and refusing to take part in the search party. I’m not going to come out of this situation smelling like a rose, that’s for sure.
“Kota, can I ask you something?” Maxx starts, biting his lower lip for a moment and reminding me that even though we haven’t spent much time together, I’ve somehow picked up one of his habits.
“Go for it.” I swipe my blazer sleeve across my face, not caring if it gets gross or not. The state of my school uniform means nothing to me right now. Parrish. I need to figure out a way to rescue Parrish. It’s like … life has suddenly become a video game. If this is just a game, I can beat it, right? I can rescue the prince from the tower.
“Do you know where Parrish is?”