Luc stared up at the popcorn ceiling, view only disrupted by slow blinks. Her body sank into the bed, the heaviest it had ever been, so heavy she didn’t know if she was strong enough to climb out of it.

  She should climb out of it. She’d been wearing the same clothes for two days now. She needed to change, shower, clean herself up. But she couldn’t.

  I don’t know what I’m going to do.

  It was the same thought that had been plaguing her for most of the past two days. Living with her mother had never been a great thing, being forced to work for her without pay aside from tips, but with her arrangement with Marie, she’d finally been in a position to start saving money. The plan had been to save up for her own place, find a way out of this town. Now she didn’t have a place to live, and no money, and no way out of town.

  Maybe Tobias and his family would let her stay here until she found a place?

  The very thought made her cringe. Having to stay with someone, survive off of their pity…

  But what else could she do? Tobias was right, it wasn’t like she could live in her car. If the school found out, they’d definitely do something about it, and the last thing she needed was to be placed in foster care for what, three months? She was nearly eighteen, nearly old enough to live on her own. She just had to find a way to survive until then.

  Somehow.

  The bedroom door creaked open. Tobias paused just inside the doorway, his eyes heavy on her. Luc didn’t react, waiting for what he was going to say.

  Instead, he just flicked the lights off.

  “I’m not asleep,” Luc said, not looking away from the dark ceiling.

  “Oh.” He flicked the lights back on. “Sorry. Are you okay?”

  She shrugged awkwardly against the pillow. How exactly was she supposed to answer that?

  He let out a sigh. “Yeah, bad question.” He walked over, sliding onto the bed beside her. She shot him a glare as he laid down, facing the ceiling with her. “Nice ceiling.”

  “What are you doing?” she demanded.

  “Staring at the ceiling,” Tobias said. “I don’t do that often enough. It’s fascinating.”

  “Shut up.”

  “It is kind of weird that you’re just sitting here staring at the ceiling,” Tobias said. “You don’t have to hide in here. My parents don’t bite.”

  “I know they don’t,” Luc said. “Are they okay with me being here?”

  “They’re okay with it,” Tobias said. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “I won’t stay long,” Luc said, crossing her arms over her chest. She jammed him in the side in the process, but he didn’t complain, or shift away.

  “You can stay as long as you need,” Tobias said. “We have plenty of space here, not to mention, you’re my friend, Luc.”

  “Am I? Or am I your pity project?” Luc demanded, the words bubbling to the surface before she could stop them.

  “In case you’d forgotten, we used to be friends when we were little,” Tobias said, and Luc had to think about it. She’d always known Tobias, he’d never been a stranger, but she’d never thought about being friends with him before. She supposed it was true. They’d played together a lot in elementary school, the memories so distant and clouded by the past years of exhausting work that she could barely reach them.

  “I guess,” she muttered.

  “I’m just saying, it’s not pity. I just don’t want to see my friend homeless. I would like my friend to go shower, though.”

  Luc glared at him, but it was half hearted. He was probably right. She did need to shower.

  Footsteps rushed down the hallway, preceding Maisey popping through the door. “What are we doing?” Maisey asked. “Are you cuddling without me?”

  Luc let out a noise of disgust and shifted away from the boy. “Absolutely not.”

  “Just trying to talk some sense into her,” Tobias said. “Convince her that it’s okay to ask for help. Especially after everything you did for me! I mean, honestly, how am I supposed to repay you for setting up a shield around the farm like you did?”

  “You don’t need to repay me,” Luc said, looking away as Maisey slinked into the room. “I promised I’d help you out.”

  “Seriously? Because that’s appropriate payback me getting blood out of your shirt? Be so for real with me right now.”

  “He has a point,” Maisey said. She dropped onto the bed on Luc’s other side, uncaring about sandwiching Luc between herself and Tobias. “If you really need to think about it a certain way, just consider this us paying you back for protecting the farm. But also, we’re friends. Do we have to constantly be trading favors back and forth? Just accept it and be quiet.”

  “Actually, I think I’m going to go shower,” Luc said, sitting up and freeing herself from the Maisey-Tobias sandwich. “And I’m not sleeping in this bed if you make out in it.”

  “We would never,” Maisey said, sitting up. “Have fun in the shower. You should join us for ice cream after!”

  Luc ignored them and slipped into the hallway, across it and into the bathroom to shower and give herself a few moments free from them. Still, they weren’t all bad, and despite how ridiculous they were, Luc did feel a bit better as she climbed into the shower.

  ******

  Marie had calmed down by the time she got home, mentally getting everything into perspective. Luc was hurting, and lashing out because of it, because that’s what people did. That didn’t mean she hated Luc, and it didn’t mean Marie couldn’t help her.

  Even if she couldn’t know that Marie was helping her.

  Her father’s car was already in the driveway as she parked. She climbed out and headed inside, already formulating her plan. Her father would help her, she just had to convince him.

  She found him in his office, where her normally was this tine of night. He looked up as she walked in, smiling at her.

  “How was your night out?”

  A sigh slipped from her lips before she could stop it. “Not great, but you could help.”

  He pushed the files he’d been reading aside, giving her his full attention. “What is it?”

  She sucked in a deep breath, going over her plan one more time. Luc had said she didn’t want help, but how could Marie just sit back and do nothing when she could help her?

  “My rival, Luc, needs some place to live,” Marie said. “And she won’t let me help her. We have apartments, right? Can you set one up for her?”

  Her father stared at her for a moment before he gave a nod. “Anything for you, baby.”