Page 113 of The Run Back Home

"It wasn't exactly the best interaction."

I stop walking—actually stop this time. Just a few feet from my room.

"What happened?"

Lenny hesitates, her fingers dragging lightly along the wall as she walks another step before realizing I'm not beside her anymore.

She turns back to me.

"She asked how my parents were. My siblings."

My lips turn down. "That doesn't sound—"

"Then she asked where I'd been."

Blood drains to my feet, but I force them to move. "Sounds like Ang," I say, taking the next few strides.

Lenny falls in step with me again, slower this time.

For a moment neither of us says anything, the only sound in the hall is the faint thud of our footsteps against the carpet. My heart rate quickens—maybe because of the tension between us. Maybe because of the proximity between Lenny and my bedroom that keeps growing closer and closer.

"She wasn't mean," Lenny finally says. I stop as I reach the end of the hall. "Just… honest."

I turn toward her, pressing my back against the last door. "That sounds like her too."

The hallway shrinks—or at least that's how it feels when she stops just in front of me.

"Maybe it's a good thing she didn't recognize me." My eyes fall down the front of her. "At the hospital."

The memory of her checking in on Vienna—on me—comes rushing back.

When I glance up again, her eyes are already on my face, and for a second, neither of us looks away.

My hand reaches behind me for the doorknob.

"My room," I say, holding my breath.

I don't open it right away, but Lenny leans in expecting me to.