“I’m still banishing her. And then you can spend your days searching for her dead body.”
Jeriah sighed frustratedly in response.
Jeriah and Gareth’s conversation was interrupted from by Ryan Norton appearing in the doorway. She was about as tall as Gareth, with the same thick-boned structure, and pixie-cut blue-gray hair. Nothing about her seemed to say “girl” to him. But Amery had been pretty clear.
“Miss Norton, I apologize for miscalling you earlier. I was not aware,” Jeriah apologized.
“Miss Norton?” Gareth stared at Ryan incredulously. “You’re a girl?”
“Gareth, kindly remove yourself.”
“What, and we were having such an intellectual conversation!”
“We’ll finish later. I hope you reconsider your plans.”
“Alright, I know when I’m not wanted. Goodnight, Miss Norton.”
Gareth disappeared into his room.
“And sorry for his reaction.”
Ryan hesitated for a moment, but just nodded. “It happens a lot.” She sat down by the blankets. “Thanks for the couch, by the way.”
“Absolutely. It seemed like you were waiting to talk to me as well. Would you prefer now or the morning?”
“Now, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course.”
A few minutes later, with the sound of the shower coming from both rooms, he was seated in his usual chair again, facing Ryan on the couch. With the large coffee table between them, it really did seem like a meeting.
Practice for when we meet the rest of the family, he told himself. “Please speak freely.”
“Amy told me about your deal.”
She had called Ryan her best friend, and he understood the need for a support structure behind their sham of a relationship. At Ryan’s questions, he told her quietly about Grandma’s mandate that if he wanted a chance to run for Head of the Group, he’d need to be married or at least intending to. Why was that? Grandmother had the right to make seemingly arbitrary rules. He’d no power to contradict her. He told her what he’d told Amery yesterday: they were vaguely familiar high school classmates. He mentioned the dream-reader interview, and Ryan’s frown turned into a grimace. “She’s earnest too,” he noted. “I appreciate that.”
Ryan’s scowl didn’t let up, but she continued talking. “Amy seemed to be set on seeing this through.”
They talked for a while longer. “I’m surprised she’s told you this much,” he confessed during a pause. “But I don’t remember you being particularly close in high school. What happened?”
“We went to the same university,” Ryan said with a shrug. “She was there for me when I came out, and I was there for her when her boyfriend started being dangerous. We’ve only been rooming together since she got back from school.”
“What happened with her boyfriend?”
Ryan’s grimace deepened. “That’s more her story to tell. But he hurt her.”
Jeriah knew better than to ask. “She’ll tell me when she’s ready.”
Ryan gave him a long, hard stare. “I’m surprised as well. You don’t seem like a terrible, calculating machine. Why do you have to do this?”
“I’ve never had a relationship. You’d be surprised how difficult it is to find someone quickly after you’ve spent your entire life shutting yourself off from all possibilities at romance.”
Ryan scoffed outright.
“It’s pathetic, I know. Amery called me desperate, and that about sums it up.”
Ryan didn’t seem to care much for his response, but she let it go. Better pathetic than malicious. “I won’t hinder your act,” she said finally. “But know this, Krovstoff: this isn’t a game. You mess with her, I mess you up; got it, sunshine?”
He felt a little better, knowing she had such a strong friend, despite how nervous it made him as the person proposing such a lie.
“I won’t give you a reason to.”
Notes:
Interludes are basically points in which the story is told more from Jeriah’s perspective than from Amy’s.
This section was also majorly updated a bunch before it served enough of a purpose. Even now I don’t think Ryan puts up enough of a fight but I’m not sure how much else to emphasize that point.
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