We hastily untangled ourselves and separated like similar ends of a magnet. The door opened, and in came Mom carrying a box. The logo on it was of a famous bakery in the city. A present? These were the times I actually valued Mom beyond being a source of money. She really cared about me, and I sometimes… sort of… cared about her, too.

  Not my usual utilitarian type of caring. It was difficult to explain. Something separate from her benefit to me.

  I wasn’t delving deeper into that thought. I didn’t want to emotionally tie myself to a specific person. Not sure what was going on with Deen. I had to settle this in my head eventually.

  “Hello, girls,” Mom said, holding the box up. “Erind, I have something for you. I know that you adore pastries. Have some with whatever you’re drinking. Is it hot chocolate?”

  “Am I that predictable, Mom?” I came over and gave her a small hug. It was such an awkward gesture because I rarely did it.

  Mom patted my hair. “You’re as sweet as the sugar you always crave.”

  Okay, this is cheesy, too. Oh, well. A small price to pay for the pastries. I opened the box and bit into a plump donut with a pink filling. I chewed for a few seconds, swirling the filling in my tongue. I wrongly assumed it was a strawberry.

  What was it? Familiar. Some sort of candy?

  “It’s cotton candy?” I wondered, recalling the scent of Deen’s perfume or soap.

  “Yes, dear,” said Mom. “A new flavor, I was told. I wasn’t sure if you’d like it, so I bought an assorted dozen. What do you think?”

  “I love it, Mom. Thanks!”

  I felt hands on my shoulders. Deen was behind me. “Erind really loves cotton candy flavor, Mrs. Hartwell,” she said. I bet that Deen sported a mischievous grin. “If she could eat it all the time, I’m sure she would.”

  “No, I won’t,” I quickly retorted. I tried to shake her off me, but all I did was spread the confectioners’ sugar on top of my donut.

  Mom raised a brow at us. “Well… It’s lovely that you two know about each other’s likes and dislikes. You seem to be very close friends.”

  “We are super close, Mrs. Hartwell,” Deen said, bumping her bouncy bumpers to the back of my head. “Close as close can be. Closer than the—”

  “How was your meeting, Mom?” I asked. She left early to have a sort of breakfast meeting with some Greaves executives. They were incredibly busy in the wake of the Adumbrae attack, and could only spare that time. Also, Mom’s flight was in a couple of hours. Their schedules coincided.

  “It went well, dear,” Mom said, going around the counter to her bedroom. “But I had to cut it short because of my flight.”

  I helped Mom with some last-minute packing. She was normally a neat person, preferring to be prepared for a trip the night before. But she had been stressed lately. Which was understandable, given that she was kidnapped by Adumbrae.

  Or maybe Mom just couldn’t sleep because her daughter was doing some nasty things in the neighboring room.

  Thank you, Mom, for not bringing up anything. Let it stay a secret.

  Deen and I carried Mom’s bags to the ground floor, where we waited for the ride that she booked. Mom hugged me, leaving some parting words of wisdom. “Don’t eat too much sugar, okay?”

  “Yes, Mom,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

  “And enjoy Vegas. Distract yourselves from… what happened. I know that what we’ve been through deeply affected you.” Mom glanced at Deen as well. “Both of you. All of us. It was a very traumatic experience. Maybe you’re having trouble sleeping because of it.”

  “Not really, Mom,” I hesitantly said, meeting Deen’s gaze. Did Mom think that we were having nightmares? That was a convenient way of explaining the noises that came from my room at night.

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  “You two take care of each other, okay?” Mom also hugged Deen.

  “Don’t worry, Mrs. Hartwell,” Deen said. “I’m going to take care of Erind… all the time.”

  “All of the time is too much,” I said.

  Deen chuckled with an evil glint in her eyes. “Oh, you and your introverted self. Your mom is telling you that it’s a dangerous world out there, so we should help each other. She’s not saying that we’re going to be permanently stuck with each other.”

  “My daughter would go crazy if such were the case,” Mom said, smiling as she patted Deen’s shoulder. “You do know that she doesn’t like physical contact. Don’t tease her too much, okay?”

  I blinked. Is that a hint that Mom knows?

  Deen’s face froze. She was thinking the same thing.

  Mom’s car arrived. We helped her load her luggage in the trunk and waved goodbye.

  “So…” Deen linked our arms after the car was out of sight. “Your mom told us to go on a date.”

  “What are you talking about? The distract ourselves thing? That just means touring the city, which we’ve already done. And I don’t really like going out.”

  “Come on… Let’s have a date before Myra moves in. A movie date.”

  “We can just watch movies in my room,” I replied, wondering what Deen’s evil plans were.

  “It’s different at the movie theater.”

  “Well, yeah. It’s going to be super dark there. And in the cover of darkness, I’m sure you’re going to do stuff to me. Is this your new thing? Doing stuff in public? Are you getting a kick out of exhibitionism or something?”

  “It’s not exhibitionism if we can’t be seen,” Deen hissed at me, glancing at the people on the sidewalk. She dragged me away from the entrance of the building.

  Guess we weren’t going back inside. I couldn’t pull away from her without using super strength.

  “It’s going to be fun,” Deen said, rubbing her breast against my upper arm.

  “Fun for you. Not me.” Her familiar cotton candy scent made me salivate against my will. I was just remembering the donut I ate earlier, and nothing else. I swear!

  “Don’t be a grumpy doll. You like movies, don’t you? We can also eat, uh, popcorn there. Caramel popcorn for your sweet tooth. I’ll even eat the starchy and carbohydrate-filled popcorn with you. Together with sugary drinks, and you’ll have a fun time. We both will.”

  “What movie?”

  “Any movie. What’s important is that we’re on a date. I’ve never been on a movie date before.”

  “Really?” I tilted my head in a bit of disbelief. Perhaps Deen didn’t want guys to get all touchy with her.

  “What do you say? Shall we go on a movie date?”

  “No.”

  And so, Deen forced me to go on a movie date. I didn’t resist much due to the promise of caramel popcorn. I had never tried them in my entire life, as weird as that sounded. There were plenty of sweet things for me to eat out there in this wide world.

  “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” I said. Deen and I were at Boulevard Mall, waiting for our order of popcorn and drinks.

  At first, Deen wanted to watch the romance movie to ‘set the mood’ or whatever it was that she meant. But it was super popular, with many people lining up to buy tickets. A packed theater wouldn’t do for Deen’s nefarious plans. The next option was an action-thriller set during the Adumbrae War.

  “The sounds of the guns would cover the noise,” Deen excitedly said.

  “Noise? You plan to make a lot of noise? I’m rethinking my decision to go with you.”

  “But there’ll be flashes from the gunfire,” said Deen, talking more to herself than me. “It wouldn’t be that dark.”

  “You’re creepy when you talk like that,” I muttered.

  “Horror movie, it is!”

  My Brother was an Adumbrae movie about the seeding of the main character’s brother. I recalled seeing a few trailers; the movie focused more on the psychological side of things instead of the monster-eat-people stuff. Not sure if Deen realized that it was a bit insensitive to watch this given my condition. She probably didn’t really care, too focused on her degenerate goals. The movie was perfect for it because it had bleak lighting.

  “I’m so happy to be on a movie date,” Deen said with pure childishness.

  It actually also made me feel happy to have agreed with her wish. But I also knew that as wholesome as this was, it wasn’t going to last. Deen’s first act upon sitting was to raise the armrest between us. No more partition. She snuggled up to me, scooting down on her seat so she could rest her head on my low shoulder. She slotted my thin arm between her pillowy mounds.

  This is quite comfy, I thought. Since she bought me caramel popcorn, I decided to play along with her little fantasy and laid my hand on her thigh.