My stomach dropped. It was someone who knew who I was. I didn’t give out my nickname here even though it could technically be used for Selena, too. I wanted to be sure I was safe, just in case someone was clever enough to put the pieces together. So whoever was out front asking for me by name was someone who knew who I really was and had somehow followed me here.
Dammit. Why was everyone following me lately? It was pissing me off.
“What does he look like?” I asked, the words coming out a little more aggressive than necessary. Mary took a step backward, Christine and Nina taking a step closer to my side.
“Um,” she looked from each of our faces. “Big guy, dark skin, expensive clothes.”
What the—
I was charging toward the front of the shelter without another word.
“Do you know who it is, Selena?” Nina asked, hot on my heels.
“Is hetheguy?” Christine asked, sounding livid.
I couldn’t answer either of them, too focused on getting to the front and seeing if it was who I thought it was. And how exactly I felt about it. Moments later, I was coming up at the front entryway of the shelter to see just who I expected. On one hand I was relieved it was him and not some creep or even worse, my family. But on the other hand…
“What the hell, Connor?” I asked, going right up to him and crossing my arms over my chest.
He was looking at me, staring really, his eyes having tracked me since I materialized down the hall from him. Now he had that Ceci-meter out, his gaze sliding over every readable inch of my face before settling on my eyes alone. “Ready to go?”
“Go where?” I asked, then shook my head. “Never mind that. You can’t be in here.”
“I came to get you,” he said evenly.
Irked that he ignored what I just said, I pointed at the double doors behind him, “You need to leave.”
He gave me a weird look and slid his hands in his pockets. “Not without you.”
“Con—” I breathed. Was he even listening to me?
I know he was worried, but he had seen me almost every day for the past two weeks. If he kept that up, he would start seeing it as a chore and pretty soon he would become sick of me. He was the last person I wanted to overdose on me. Especially because he thought I couldn’t handle myself. He needed to lighten up.
Before I could express this, however, there were bodies on either side of me. Both Nina and Christine wrapped an arm around my shoulder and another around my waist like they were some sort of safety harness. Together they stepped me a few large steps away from Con. His eyebrow rose, but that was it.
“Who are you?” Christine asked.
Connor looked Christine over, his eyes trailing from where her hands connected on me to the rest of her before he turned those eyes to me. He wasn’t going to answer. Not until he knew how I wanted him to proceed. He was trained well.
“This is Connor, my friend,” I said to Christine, using my hands to squeeze her forearm reassuringly. “He’s okay, I promise, he just doesn’t know the rules here.”
“Who are you?” Connor asked, and was that a little challenge I detected in his voice? Was I the only one who found that adorable?
“I’m Christine and this is Nina,” she answered, her chin inclining. “We’re Selena’s friends and we don’t just let her leave with strange men we don’t know.”
Instantly, Connor seemed to put together that I had told them what happened, and like it was written across his face in permanent marker, I saw that he appreciated them. Accepted them.
“In that case, thank you. I worry about her—you know she’ll follow anyone who gives her food?” he asked, giving me a look that clearly said, ‘Selena?’Oh so he thought he was funny, huh? I tried to give him a warning look that said,‘you’ll pay for that later’, but he was too busy talking to the others to pay me much mind. “Can I prove it to you? That I’m not some random guy?”
“Um, yeah,” Nina said slowly, thinking. “Show us a picture of you guys together! So we know she really knows you.”
“Or you could just ask me. Iamstanding right here,” I said, but they ignored me. I think they were just in it for the picture.
Con didn’t even hesitate. With ease he pulled up his camera roll and scrolled to a picture not too far back. It was like he didn’t even have to think about which one he’d show. He just went straight to the photo and flipped his phone around, handing it over to the girls. Not to me, I noticed.
My toes stretched as I rose onto them, trying to get a better look at the phone in Christine’s hand.
The picture on the screen was of me and Connor on the beach. He was lying flat on the sand (a result of me having just tackled him) and I was lying on top of his back (a result of the same). He was raised up on an elbow and looking up at me while I laughed out loud. Both of us had drawn sand mustaches on each other. And later unpictured we will have dropped sand down each other’s shorts.
