Chapter 10

Was it odd that I found Kyle’s hand in mine comforting?  I have had guns, knives, other weapons in my face, but when standing in front of this crowd of people, a child kept me calm.  Maybe, this was why people flocked in groups.  I had never understood why they said that the larger the group, the stronger you were.  In my opinion, being by myself was always the best.  I didn’t have to worry about the others weaknesses, didn’t have to worry about how they would make a mistake.  Here, though, I was happy to have Kyle next to me.

“Genna,” Kyle said, pointing at the woman walking towards me.  She swayed a little, but the tears in her eyes were what worried me the most.

“Aren’t we friends?” I whispered.

He looked up at me and grimaced.  “She was friends with you, but you hated her.  I think she would like you how you are now though.  Show her you, and she’ll be okay.”

I didn’t answer him; he didn’t understand that that was out of the question.  I had already messed up a couple people’s lives; I wasn’t going to cause more damage.  Blanking my expression, I waited for the woman to stop in front of me.  I had to admit, if I judged a book by the cover, I could already say this woman and I would have gotten along.  Her hair was a little sloppy, but the woman herself was beautiful.  That wasn’t what allowed me to judge her; it was the genuine smile she sent Kyle before glaring at me.

“I can’t believe you would do that,” she whispered, hurt clear in her eyes.  She glanced at Kyle once more before her eyes scanned the place.  “Do you think we could go to the library?  My father won’t care.”

“I’m going,” Kyle said.  His voice was more commanding than such a young person’s should be, but I knew that his experiences allowed him to pull the hardness from deep down inside of him and display it.

I reached out with my free hand and mussed his hair.  “Of course you are, kid.  I promised I wouldn’t leave you alone, didn’t I?”

“Yeah,” he said his hard voice dropping to be replaced by a smile.  “Come on, sis.”

He tugged me towards what I assumed was the library, and I followed absentmindedly.  Never, have I ever had a person call me sis.  It was odd, but something that I liked.  I mentally berated myself.  I couldn’t afford to like the way Kyle treated me, couldn’t want to be here.

Pushing a door open, his hand slipped from mine as I walked into the place.  By the sounds behind me, I knew that Genna had entered too, and that the door was being closed.

“Why would you do that?” she said.  I closed my eyes, hating the complete hurt in her voice.  It wasn’t something knew, hearing betrayal being thrown at me, but usually, I knew what I did.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mumbled, not turning towards her.

Angry footsteps stomped towards me.  Her hands grabbed my shoulders, and I had to force my instincts down.  The woman was an innocent, nothing more.  Jerking me around, her face came inches from mine. “You knew I loved him,” she sniffled.

“I’m sorry.”

She took a wobbly step back, her eyes closing.  “You’re a liar, Dorothy.  I wish I could believe you, but you went too far this time.”

“Genna,” Kyle said, bring attention to him.  His face was hard, and I hated it.  Why did the kid have to grow up so soon?  Why couldn’t he be the innocent smiling boy I had seen earlier?  “Leave her alone.”

I smiled at him, understanding the hard expression.  It was like that for many foster kids.  They were so used to giving up their belongings that once they found something they wanted to keep a hold of, they fought for it.  “It’s okay, Kyle.”

“No,” he snapped as his head shook.  “It’s not okay.  She doesn’t know, sis, and she has no right to be mean to you.”

“Kyle,” I warned.  My smile had now dropped as I took a step towards him.

He looked towards me, his face softening.  “She’s not really Dorothy,” he said, a smile forming on his face.

With any other person, I would have thought that he was doing it to be malicious, but knowing Kyle, the kid wanted to protect me.  “It’s not true,” I whispered.  He flinched, and I hated myself for mumbling the words.  My eyes begged him to understand what I was doing, while my body stood frozen for to Genna see. 

“Wait,” Genna mumbled, wobbling towards me.  She grabbed my face, before I could jerk away and stared at my eyes.  “It’s true.”  She let out a laugh before throwing her arms around me.  “I might be completely wasted, but it’s true.”  She pushed me back, while bringing a finger up to her mouth.  “I won’t tell anyone,” she whispered, the words coming out a little too loud.  “I’ve always wanted a friend, but Dorothy was the only one who would talk to me.  Now, you can be my friend.”  She paused, her face scrunching up in confusion.  “So, you didn’t sleep with Tomas?”

“Nope,” I mumbled.  I hope that in the morning, Genna would forget about this whole exchange, writing it off as a drunken mishap.

“Oh good,” she breathed, pulling me into a hug again.  “Will you be my friend, please?  For as long as you’re here?  I kinda need it right now.”  Her last sentence broke, as tears dropped onto my shoulders. 

“Fine,” I mumbled, “but if you tell anyone, I’ll have to kill you.”

Her arms dropped as she walked towards Kyle.  “We won’t tell anyone, will we?”

“Nope,” Kyle said, just as a knock reverberated on the large library doors.

“Genna, honey, are you in there?  Your father’s worried sick.”

The soft voice that came through the doors held genuine worry in them.  Genna’s eyes widened as she tossed the wine glass in her hand towards the fireplace.  Her hands came up, swiping at the tears dried onto her cheeks.  She straightened as the door opened. 

We all smiled at the woman, who looked at us worriedly.  “Is everything fine?” she asked, her eyes darting towards me with a small nod.

“Yes, Mom,” Genna said in a happy tone.  “You won’t believe what I went through tonight; let’s just say it was fun.”

“Not too much fun, I hope,” the woman said while taking a step back.  “Hurry up, dears, some people wish to speak to you.  By the way Miss Herring, where is Cole?”

“Like she would know,” Genna said while rolling her eyes.  “You know the two of them cannot stand one another, Mom.  I’m surprised Dorothy even showed up, seeing as Cole was rumored to come.  Oh well, I’d rather have her here than him.”

A smile spread on the woman’s face as she closed the door silently behind her. 

“That was close,” Genna mumbled as she slumped back into her original position.  “Come on, whatever your name is, we have a party to make a little less boring.”

“You can’t keep calling me that,” I said with a laugh as Genna walked towards the library doors. 

She looked at me.  “How about I call you tiny?  You have a smaller waist than Dorothy could attain.”  Genna’s hand snapped over her mouth as she laughed.  “I cannot believe I said that.”  The words were muffled behind her hand, but I understood them.

Shaking my head at her, I snagged Kyle’s hand before walking towards the door.  “How about, for now, you call me Dee.  It sounds like a nickname between friends.”

“Good enough,” she said, pushing the door open.

“Wait, what’s your last name?”

“I forgot you don’t know anything,” she mumbled before taking a step out of the library.  “I’m a Morgenstern.  My father’s the one holding your dad’s promotion in his hands.”  She looked at me.  “I wasn’t going to tell him what Dorothy did.  I wouldn’t punish her entire family for something that she did, even if that was her plan all along.”

“I know,” I whispered while giving her a little shove back into the party. It was true.  I knew that Genna would never do anything that would hurt another person.  The woman was too nice. 

As I stepped into the party, I smiled.  I might as well tell everyone I’m not who I say I am.  There were already four people who knew that shouldn’t.  I glanced towards the large clock hanging in the room.  If that was anything to go by, I had just two more hours to make sure that the four people that knew were the only ones that would find out.