Nixx
I slept harder than I had in years.
When I finally opened my eyes, sunlight was pushing around the edges of Benny’s curtains and my body felt like somebody had replaced half my bones with concrete. For several seconds I didn’t know what had woken me.
Then I heard JJ laugh downstairs.
It wasn’t loud. Barely more than a breath followed by Benny saying something I couldn’t make out, but it stopped me cold.
I hadn’t heard that sound since before everything went to s**t.
By the time I made it downstairs, whatever Benny had done to earn it was over. JJ sat curled carefully into the corner of the couch with pillows braced around her ribs and the laptop resting on the cushion beside her. She still looked too pale. The bruising along her jaw had faded from angry purple into uglier shades
