And her appearance triggers a bright feeling, like Christmas morning. I rush her before she gets far. “What’d you bring?”
She grins, setting a foot on the floor and leaving one on her board. “Your favorite.” She shakes a paper brown Lucky’s bag.
“You’re the best.” Between keeping our secret and smuggling in food, Daisy has shown her loyalty to Team LiLo （that’s what they call us online now）。
Lo jumps up from the ground and takes the bag from Daisy. “Thanks, Dais.”
“Always happy to help,” she says, standing back on her skateboard. She rolls around the room. “I have to warn you though, Rose is giving me these dirty looks. I think she’s catching on that I’m sneaking in food.”
“Stay strong,” I encourage as Lo passes me a box of fries.
“She has those eyes, you know,” Daisy tells us. “They’re kind of scary.”
“That’s what it feels like to be turned to stone,” Lo says. He sits at the desk and unwraps a burger.
“LILY! LO!” Ryke yells from downstairs. “I’m coming up! You both better be clothed!”
Shit. Fuck. Shit.
“Hide,” I hiss to Daisy. I don’t want her to get in real trouble from Rose or Ryke. We both glance at the bed at the same time, and Daisy lies on her skateboard and rolls underneath, out of sight.
I shove a fry in my mouth and find the Nerf gun by the nightstand.
Lo snaps his fingers at me. “Uh-uh.” He shakes his head in disapproval.
I swallow my fry and then say, “He’s the enemy, Lo.”
The door pops open before he can reply, and I pelt the Nerf balls at Ryke’s chest. He doesn’t flinch, not even by the fifth one. “What the fuck, Lily?” he growls and storms over, tugging the plastic toy from my hands.
I look to Lo, and he has that expression like told you so.
Damage not inflicted. Point taken.
I slump down on the bed, stiffening a little as I remember Daisy hides beneath the mattress and box springs.
Ryke narrows his eyes at the Nerf gun. “Where did you get this?”
“We’ve had it,” I lie briskly.
“If you’ve had this, you’d have shot me weeks ago.”
So true.
“It apparated into our room.”
His eyebrows knot. “What?” He turns to Lo. “Is she even speaking English.”
Lo wipes his mouth with a napkin, still focused on his food. “It’s a Harry Potter term.”
“For fuck’s sake, both of you are being ridiculous. Stop this silly fucking protest and come down…” His voice trails off when he catches sight of what Lo is eating. A Lucky’s bag guiltily sitting beside the innocent lamp. And then Ryke’s face darkens. “Calloway!”
“Yes?” I ask.
He rolls his eyes. “Not you.” His head whips around the room. “Daisy!” He flings open the closet door, searching for her between my shirts and Lo’s crew-necks.
“You should be directing your anger at Scott,” Lo refutes, sipping from a fountain Fizz. “The moment he apologizes, we’ll be back downstairs with the cameras.”
Ryke doesn’t listen. He concentrates on finding my sprightly blonde sister. “Daisy!” And then he rests a hand on the mattress, about to duck his head underneath the bed.
“Wait!” I shriek. But it’s too late.
He grabs her ankle and rolls her out onto the floor.
She’s smiling wide, her blonde hair tangled and hanging half in her face. “Hey there,” she says, looking up at Ryke.
He gives her a long once-over that’s hard to miss. “Stop giving them food and…toys.” He tosses the Nerf gun on the bed.
Daisy turns over, her back against the skateboard. “They were getting bored,” she refutes like it makes all the difference. It so does.
“Good.”
She glides away from him with the push of her hands, like she’s floating on the pool on her back.
Ryke puts his foot in between her legs, stopping the skateboard from rolling. My sister inhales a little deeper than before. This looks utterly sexual. Right? I glance to Lo, and his glare could burn a hole in his brother’s forehead.
Ryke never backs down, waiting for Daisy to speak.
“I have this theory,” Daisy says, “that if you leave two people who are really, really attracted to each other, alone in a room, without anything to do, they’ll have sex. A lot, a lot of sex.”
I blush, wondering if she’s talking about us or about her and Ryke.