Page 102 of Mistaken Prejudice

“Yeah,” I mumbled quietly.

“He pulled a ferret out of his bag. You should have been there, Miley. The girls screamed like crazy, and the teacher’s face turned red.”

“Where did he get a ferret?” I wondered.

“That’s the best part.” He turned on his belly and rested on his elbows. “It’s Ty’s. I’ve got no idea how he got his hands on Ty’s ferret. Ty was furious, by the way. It was hilarious.”

“Is the ferret all right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he promised me with a wide smile. “Don’t worry about it. In fact.” He moved his hand and pressed it slowly to my cheek before he used one finger to trace the beauty spot on my face. Andrei used to love those two spots.

“Don’t worry about anything,” he said quietly, with such confidence that almost made me believe him.

“You think he’ll forgive me?”

“It doesn’t matter if he will. He doesn’t deserve you, Miley.” But it did matter. It mattered more than anything ever did.

“It does.” I felt a tear slowly slide down my face until it soaked into the pillow beneath me. I didn’t bother to wipe it down, but Shay-Lee did. Softly and carefully, he captured all of my tears. He was petting me gently with his palm. It was such a warm and loving touch that I leaned into it with my eyes closed, not even caring that he got close enough for me to hear his heartbeat.

Andrei’s hands were warm and rugged, with peeling skin on the palms from the weights he lifted. I loved how he touched my face and tracked my beauty marks like he was collecting pearls at the bottom of the ocean.

Andrei’s lips were just as rough. But also sweet and loving. They always captured me with confidence and care, not like Shay-Lee’s lips were touching me right now, kissing me with worry, fear, and desperation. I blinked my eyes open and moved my head away enough to cut the unwanted kiss.

“No,” I said quietly with my hand on his chest.

I didn’t know why he kissed me. It would have been shocking if I wasn’t so tired.

“I’m tired.”

“So sleep.” His head rested on the pillow next to me, the one Andrei used to sleep on whenever he came here. Would he ever sleep next to me again?

“I can’t.” No matter how tired I was, sleep seemed to escape me. It was a different kind of exhausting, the type that never went away.

I watched as Shay-Lee rolled off the bed, only now noticing he was half-dressed. I heard some rattling before he jumped back beside me with a small, orange plastic container.

“Take one of these. It will help,” he said as he handed me the container.

“Will it make me sleep?”

“Like a log.”

I grabbed the pills from him and took one out.

“I-I use them,” he added as if he was trying to convince me, but I didn’t need convincing. I swallowed the pill before he completed his sentence. Should I have asked why he had them in the first place? Did it matter? And why did he kiss me?

All these questions vanished away as my body started to feel numb. My eyelids became heavy, and my breathing slowed. I closed my eyes.

Hoping it would get the world to quiet down.

Chapter 31

Andrei

“Are you going to see him today?” Levi asked from beside me as we made our way back to the parking lot.

It’d been six days since my fight with Miles, in which I told him some pretty nasty things and left him crying. It turned my stomach just recalling how hurt he looked, but then I remembered how mad I was.

What he did was fucked up, but he wasn’t the only one at fault. After all, if I really wanted him to stop, I could have, but I didn’t. Wasn’t it one of those you’re only sorry ’cause you got caught sort of things?