Beach Day

41: The Next Steps

Aunt Esther looks up from where she's bent over the bed, looking through notes on Tiff's laptop. "Oh, dear. Tiff, sweetheart. I'm glad you're not covered in goo, but you still don't look too hot."

"Yeah, my eye is throbbing. It's been forever, I forgot it would feel like this." She pauses and, thinking that she doesn't want to talk about her time in Fort Reverence right now, adds, "Like that one time with Krista B. She didn't mean to, but she whacked me in the face with the handle of a tennis racket?" (Krista absolutely meant to do that.)

"I remember the bruise, but I didn't know it came from her."

"Sometimes your boss's granddaughter hits you in the eye with a tennis racket after you... you know, get arrested a little. It's normal."

"It's definitely not, Tiffy. And that one looks particularly bad."

"Well," Matt pipes up from the corner of the room, where he's still cleaning the goo, blood, and vomit from what Tiff hopes is an unloaded gun, "Nobody told you to do what you did."

"And what, pray tell, did you do?" Her aunt turns to look at her.

Well, shit. Tiff pauses with her sandwich near her mouth, between one bite and another. "Uh— nothing."

"Oh, goddammit, Tiff."

She takes a bite so she can't say anything.

That doesn't mean Matt can't talk, though. Aunt Esther turns to him immediately. "Matthew Joseph—"

"How do you know my middle name?"

"I'm your aunt, I know shit. What the hell did Tiff do? What the hell did you let her do?"

"She's a grown woman! I couldn't have stopped her from climbing out of a moving car to shoot while I was driving away from the goddamn bone creature."

Aunt Esther gives her a look. "Tiffany May Sheridan."

"What?" She feigns innocence around a mouthful of peanut butter.

"Don't play coy. What the hell made you think that was a good idea? Do you have a death wish?"

Behind Aunt Esther and her hands on her hips, Kepler nods enthusiastically. Tiff shakes her head no and swallows. "I didn't die last time, it's fine."

"I have it on good authority that you did, young lady."

"God, you guys talked about that, too? Stop colluding with Denny!"

"Stop doing insane shit and putting yourself in danger!" Esther doesn't give Tiff the chance to say anything before she continues, "We've talked about this. We don't talk about it enough, but we've talked about it before— You have to be more careful. We don't want you gone. We want you alive."

"Trust me, the universe wants the same thing."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing has killed me yet."

"Need I say that's not what I heard from Denny?"

"You already said that."

"It didn't stop being true between then and now."

"Do I look dead to you? To any of you? I— I'm fine. Everything is fine. The gun slipped and hit me in the eye. It's probably bruised and it'll probably swell so I'll probably have to wear glasses tomorrow like a fucking loser, but it'll be fine. Aunt Esther, I love you, but you worry too much. You worry about me too much."