It was… interesting that Tattletale had apologized by that roundabout way, but that she’d prodded at my wounds like she had, in this past conversation. Was there something else in play? A degree of insecurity? Or, with my discussion regarding Colt so fresh in my mind, I might even consider an element of it to be the wiring of her particular brain.

She didn’t apologize or hold back from poking at weak points because she couldn’t. In which case… this was wholly, entirely fair to do, on my part. She’d told me.

“I said that at a time I was in pain, delirious.”

I didn’t back down. “Any currency I earned there? I want to spend it. On this.”

“You even resorted to physical violence. You really want this. Some financial payment, some favors, and you can play that card,” she said. “You get five minutes of my time.”

“That wasn’t physical violence. Intimidation, maybe.”

But I didn’t waste the time she’d offered me. I got my laptop out of my bag, handing it over. She powered it on.

“The password is—”

She had it typed before I got that far in the sentence.

“You don’t have internet. I can see why you needed my help. That’s a horrific situation to be in.”

“I took out the networking card before I did anything,” I said. “I moved it to a folder on the desktop.”

“A… diary. How cute.”

“Read it.”

“This is how you want me to spend the time? Stroke your ego? Am I supposed to start empathizing with you?”

“Read,” I said.

“The brute side of you really comes out when you’re stressed. Where do I start?”

“Wherever.”

“Huh. Okay, important dates…”

She’d allotted me five minutes.

When ten minutes had passed, I got tired of standing around, and went to check in on the others. The hollow feeling hadn’t left me. I still felt betrayed, and weirdly violated even though it wasn’t my diary being used to judge me.

“Are you leaving?” Kenzie asked. “I didn’t get to show you anything.”

“Not leaving yet. Waiting for Tattletale to read. I might be a little distracted until she’s done. After?”

“After’s good. Aren’t these birds cool?”

Every single bird in Aiden’s ‘office’ stared me down, silent. Not a chirp or tweet.

“Really cool. Intimidating.”

“Aren’t they!?” Kenzie asked, delighted.

“Can I grab one of your snacks from the other room?”

“Yes,” Kenzie said, looking at the others. “Yes? That’s okay? We’re okay with that?”

I got confirmation.

“There was hot chocolate. Want me to make you guys something? It would be microwave hot chocolate, but you—”

I didn’t even need to finish the sentence.

Hot chocolate and snacks. Tattletale made some annoyed sounds with every beep of the microwave, but didn’t otherwise comment.