Adam doesn't take off his coat, but he looks around. The second his eyes lock onto my records leaning against the turntable, he's drawn to them like there are magnets in his fingertips. He crouches, but doesn't touch. Casper throws herself onto my bed and stretches out. I take a seat beside her.

"You can look at them, if you want," I say to Adam. "They don't bite."

He glances at me and carefully begins rifling through the records.

"You know what you need?" Casper says, rolling onto her side to face me. "A dog. You should totally get a dog."

That suggestion catches me off-guard. I look at her. Really look at her. I haven't told either of them about my frequent animal shelter trips. "I'm not going to adopt something that'll get attached to me just so I can leave it all alone."

An indescribable veil slides down over her expression and her mouth draws thin.

"That's sort of what your foster mom did to you, isn't it?" Adam says.

Casper's mouth drops open, but she can't even find the words to chastise him. Adam looks between her and me, seems to realize he's said something wrong and turns away quickly. I bite my lip, chewing at the skin there.

It's true, isn't it? I'm the dog Maggie brought home. The stray that needed a home. And she left me all alone. It wasn't her fault. How many times did she tell me I was going to give her a heart-attack one of these days?

I swallow back the lump in my throat. "Do you guys want pizza for dinner?"

There's an enthusiastic yes which comes primarily from Casper, and I get up to place an order online. Maggie used to be obsessive about using coupons. It was the only time she'd order pizza, when the coupons came in the mail. And she always had to call it in. Never any of that 'fancy computer techno stuff you kids do.'

Adam pulls out one of my records, Sheer Heart Attack, and puts it on to play. Casper listens to a verse or two while I clack away on my laptop, before she says, "This is pretty good. Who is it?”

Adam slowly turns around to give her an incredulous, narrow-eyed stare. "How can you not recognize Freddie Mercury's voice?" he asks. Her expression is blank.

I pause in my typing. "Freddie Mercury. Queen?"

"Oh... Yeah, I've heard of him."

"Them. They're a band. You've heard their music, right?"

Shrug. "The stuff that plays on the radio."

Adam and I exchange unimpressed looks. Freddie sings how it's funny but there's nothing to laugh about. I order a large pizza, a few sodas, and some cheese-sticks.

Online. Without a coupon.

CHAPTER 12

After we stuff ourselves on dinner, Casper falls asleep on my bed. There's nowhere in the apartment for me and Adam to talk without waking her, so we drag a few blankets onto the balcony and stare at the river.