I nodded.
He paused for a moment, eyes bouncing side to side as he tipped his head in thought.
“Did you ever win a goldfish from the carnival?”
Had I? No. My mom and dad wouldn’t let us go to a place like that. But I remembered once, when Reed and I were sixteen, we went to get feeder fish for his turtle. It was late, the pet store smelled like sawdust and mildew, and the clerk was too busy texting to care that we lingered near the tanks. We picked out five tiny orange fish, and someone put them in a thin plastic bag for us. I watched them the whole drive home.
They didn’t peacefully swim, they thrashed, battering themselves against the plastic as if they knew what was coming. Maybe they were panicking because they were being carried to their death. Or, maybe they just wanted out. To look through that translucent film and see what the world outside their tank had to offer.
Perhaps we were the same in that regard. Sometimes, I wondered what the world outsidemytank had to offer. What my life would’ve been like if I graduated high school and went off to college.
But those were all far tight dreams for me, especially now with the—
Skye snapped his fingers, drawing me from my thoughts.
“Vi, did you hear me?”
I shook my head, and Skye forced out an irritated breath.
“Point is, your baby is going to do that soon,” he added.
Instinctively, I shook my head.
“What do you meanno?” he scoffed. “You can’t just say—”
I put my palm over his mouth, effectively shutting him up. His eyes narrowed, but he let it happen.
I reached for my phone, typed quickly, and held it up for him to see:Babies. Plural.
He blinked. “What?”
I held up two fingers and then did the sign for baby.
“You’re having twins?!” His voice pitched up.
Another nod.
Skye flopped back onto the nest with a groan. “Oh my god, when are you due?”
November, I signed.
“Oh my god, I’m due in August. We’re going to be stuck in the newborn stage for six months.” he whined. “Andthenwe’re going to have three whole babies. We arenevergoing to sleep again.”
I lifted a shoulder. Skye seemed genuinely distressed, but I just assumed we’d figure it out. After all, there were five functional adults in our pack, which meant we had more than justmeto take care of the babies.
My lips pulled up at the corners.
“What?” Skye asked.
I took my phone and typed:Do you think Vinny would let me get my GED?Before showing it to Skye.
“Uh, yeah?” He chuckled. “Sure, he won’t let you too far away from him. But, if you wanted to, he’d let you go to college online, and pay for it too.”
Heat rushed my cheeks as I stared down at my phone. Maybe if I could do something like that, if I showed some kind of ambition, I could prove I wasn’t useless. And, if I wasn’t useless, no one here would ever kick me out, especially Vinny. Which meant, if he okayed me going to school, I could let him mark me.
Then I wouldn’t need my bunny or his scent to stop me from getting sick, and everything would be okay.
My fingers started to tingle, I wasn’t used to this level of excitement.