“Ya-Ya? What is it? What happened?” I ask, running to her side.
She lifts her arm up slowly and I don’t know what I’m looking for. Her arm looks normal and she doesn’t appear to be hurt. Sailor is beside me, and her look of concern turns to one of anger.
“Don’t you dare say this fuss is because of that,” she says, pointing to a small tear in Ya-Ya’s sleeve. The tear is so small I didn’t even notice it until Sailor pointed it out.
“This top is Gucci,” Ya-Ya says, but she looks ashamed of herself all the same.
“Get a fucking grip.” Sailor sighs and walks away.
“I’m sorry,” Ya-Ya calls after her. “It’s just… it’s my way of coping, alright? I focus on material things so I don’t have to think about how close we came to losing you both.”
Sailor turns back to her and the anger is gone from her face. She comes back towards Ya-Ya.
“I know. I’m the one who should be sorry. I guess my way of coping is biting people’s heads off,” she says.
She hugs Ya-Ya. Jinx appears in the doorway.
“You might want to think twice about biting Ya-Ya’s head off.” He laughs. “Imagine how pissed she would be if you got blood on her.”
“Shut up, Jinx,” I say automatically, but he’s already gone.
He comes running back in.
“Adam is walking down the street,” he announces.
“Quick, everyone in the living room,” I shout.
Nexus puts her hand on my arm as I run towards the living room, and I stop for a moment.
“I’m onto something with the tunnel, Rye. I’ll be back later,” she says.
She’s gone before I can ask anything, but we don’t have time to talk now anyway. Adam is on his way up the path. I enter the living room and see Sunday and Mel had everything in hand ready for Adam’s return. Sailor sits in the center of the couch with Mel on one side and Ya-Ya on the other. Aziza, Sunday, and Jinx are the on the other couch. Sailor and Sunday both have big bowls of popcorn on their laps and a movie is playing on the TV, halfway through as though we’ve all been sitting watching it. I drop into a chair just as Adam comes in.
He walks into the living room and smiles when he sees us all gathered with Sailor. She looks up and smiles at him as we all greet him.
“Hi guys, good to see you all,” Adam says, although his focus is only on Sailor. “How are you feeling, Biscuit?”
This gets a snicker from Jinx, earning him an elbow in the ribs from Sunday, but Sunday is smirking too. Sailor gets up and goes to her dad. She hugs him tightly.
“I’m feeling fine,” she says. “Thank you for being amazing today. But we need to talk about the Biscuit thing, dad. Not in front of my friends.”
Adam laughs and holds Sailor out at arm’s length for a moment, looking her up and down. He pulls her back in for another hug and then releases her.
“There’s nothing to talk about. You’ll always be Biscuit to me, and I don’t care who knows it.”
Sailor blushes slightly as she retakes her seat, but she’s laughing. I look at her and then Adam, and I feel a wash of guilt fly over me. My feelings for Sailor are risking his life. And Sailor doesn’t even know what she’s risking by wanting to be with me. I think of how guilty I feel over the death of my own parents, and I know I can’t put that guilt onto Sailor. I have to tell her the truth. Now. Tonight. And if she wants nothing more to do with me once she knows, then I’ll have to find a way to make my peace with that.
“So how’s everyone’s day been?” Adam asks, plonking himself down in the only spare chair.
“Uneventful,” Sailor says with a little smile.
This gets a laugh from the team. Adam looks a little confused, but he shrugs it off and laughs with us. I think he’s just relieved Sailor is okay. He’s not the only one.
“Well I think there’s only one thing we can do now,” Adam says. “Order pizza.”
This gets a chorus of approval from everyone and he laughs. He gets up and pulls his cell phone out. He finishes ordering and stands up.
“I’ll go and get the pizzas. It’ll be much quicker than waiting for them to bring them,” he says. “Sailor, will you be…?”
“I’ll be fine,” she says with a smile.
“Okay. I won’t be long. Try not to do anything wild and wreck the house while I’m gone,” he says.
This gets another laugh from the team. I hand him his keys back and he leaves the room, a pleased look on his face. He’s just happy Sailor is happy I think. I don’t know how happy she’s going to be once I talk to her, but I know it has to be done and I want to do it now, before I can talk myself out of it. I wait until I hear Adam’s car pull away and then I turn to Sailor.
“Sailor. Can we talk in the kitchen for a minute please?” I say.
She nods and gets up.
“Ooh, someone’s in trouble.” Jinx laughs.
“Yeah, you… if you don’t watch it,” Sailor jokes.
She follows me to the kitchen. She steps in and closes the door and then she rounds on me.
“I know what this is about and I don’t want to hear it,” she says. “I know you told me to wait outside, but this is my house, Rye. I wasn’t going to stand by and let the demons wreck my house. Or hurt you.”
Her voice breaks slightly on the last word, and I reach out and squeeze the top of her
