‘Come back next week. We’re free on the weekends after midday. I work at the shop down the road and Nick does the paper round,’ said Gabe.
Myles nodded and smiled at them.
‘Good jamming with you,’ he said and he walked outside, wondering how in one day his world could seem so different.
21
‘Do you think dogs dream?’ he asked Eve while she drove them home.
‘Of course they do,’ she answered. ‘My mum read a study stating they dream like we do, of the people we love, but dogs probably dream of playing and eating more than us. Perhaps they don’t process trauma or hard things in their sleep but they definitely have dreams.’
Then Myles was silent for a while.
‘I have shit dreams – that’s why I don’t sleep much.’
‘That’s hard, really hard. Sleep is so important. That’s where we empty our brains of all the stuff we don’t need, like we put everything away for a new start the next day.’
‘I try to sleep and if I do get to sleep I don’t stay asleep for long. That’s why I stay up, so I get so tired and then my body just gives in.’
Eve nodded. Slowly, slowly, she reminded herself.
‘What do you dream about?’ She kept her voice casual as she asked such a loaded question.
‘My mom,’ he said. His voice was flat and he looked out the window.
‘Do you miss her?’ she asked.
‘Fuck no,’ he cried and the dog stirred in the back of the car. ‘Shh, it’s okay, buddy,’ he whispered to the dog, or was that to himself. She wasn’t sure.
‘Oh okay, you and your mum aren’t close?’
He snorted. ‘My mother is an abusive bitch who Dad kicked out because she drank so much and the last time she did she hurt Flora and he’d had enough.’
Eve was shocked.
‘Not that he kicked her out when I was being abused but hey, it’s clear Edward never gave a shit about me. But I have nowhere else to go, so that’s why I’m stuck at the stupid house.’
Myles was quiet for a while.
‘You know she once said I was her biggest mistake,’ he said.
Eve frowned. ‘That’s a terrible thing to say. I’m so sorry.’
He shrugged. ‘It is what it is. She said heaps of shit to me, mostly when Edward wasn’t around. It wasn’t until she was drunk and pushed Flora over that Edward did something. He will do anything for Flora but not for me.’
Eve knew better than to argue with him about this. It would be invalidating him to try, and she didn’t know the truth; only Myles and Edward knew that, and maybe Amber Priest.
‘Do you ever hear from her?’ she asked.
‘Nah, she’s partying in LA. She doesn’t care about Flora either; she only cares about herself.’
‘Do you like Flora?’
He turned to her and frowned. ‘Like her? Not really. She’s really annoying with her dolls and stupid games.’ He paused for a moment. ‘I love her though, if that makes sense. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to her, which is why I told Edward that Mom had pushed her over and cut Flora’s head open.’
Jesus,Eve thought.What the hell had been happening in that house?
‘I get it. I love my brothers but they really fucking annoy me sometimes.’
