Soli’s back twenty minutes to the dot. Her eyes are sparkling, she’s lit. ‘Guys?’
An abandoned quiet.
‘Hello?’
The voice of a little girl. She stares at the key in her hand. Shakes her head, quickly, as if she’s trying to shake sense back into it. Runs to the bathroom, screeches aside the shower curtain. Runs out of the room moaning, ‘No, no, come back.’
An explosion of giggling from under the bed.
‘Get out.’
A furious, tear-brimmed voice.
She drags up Mouse, knows exactly whose fault this is. Her fingernails dig in hurting and deep. ‘Don’t you ever do that to me again, you … brat.’ She shakes him viciously and he starts to yell but stops.
Because of something new in her.
Something exhausted, and old, and pushed to the brink.
Leave not a stain in thine honour.