Page 67 of Left In The Dark

I snort. “Not your thing, huh?”

“Not really. I’m not very fast either.”

“I’d try to slow down enough for you to keep up,” I say back.

“Nah. I’ll stick with walking. I’m slow at that too.”

I laugh again. “Oh, and about the bucket, I don’t mind emptying it myself. I’ll do it on my way back to the house.”

He sits up taller with interest filling his eyes. He wants to go back to my room, doesn’t he? But is it for the right reason or because he sees it as a new opportunity to get away? It’s still hard to tell.

“I just . . . I hate that you have to do that when I’m the only one filling it.”

“It’s okay. I’m the one who decided to make it your toilet, and I know the best way to dispose of it.”

“How old are you?” He randomly changes the subject.

“Old enough,” I mumble and shove food into my mouth.

“Can you at least tell me if we’re the same age?”

My fork pauses midair. “We aren’t.”

“Older or younger?”

“What do you think?”

His eyes move from side to side. “Older. You seem like you have your life too put together to be younger than me.”

“Yeah. I’m older. But that’s not really important.”

“You have blue eyes like me,” he points out. I stopped wearing my brown contacts after bringing him here. I guess he forgot I originally had blue eyes, because he never once questioned them. Good.

“I do.”

“I wish I knew more about what you looked like under there.” He scoops up rice with his spoon, sniffing his food before shoving it into his mouth. Does he think I did something to it? It’s a little too late to be worrying about that now.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. To see if it matches the image I’ve made up in my head.”

“What image is that? Describe it to me.”

He makes a pensive face. “Brown hair and a strong jawline. Clean-shaven maybe with a farmer’s tan.”

I scoff. “Hmmm.”

“Hmmm as in I’m right?” The corners of his lips shake.

“Hmmm as in hmmm.”

“So, I’m not right?” He rests a hand on the table.

“You just described half the people in this town.”

“What color is your hair?”

“Haven’t you already decided it’s brown?” I say with a clipped tone.