The Psychic Next Door

Chapter 22: Hope

When I emerged from Luc's bedroom the morning after, Polly was standing statue-still in the middle of the living room, waiting for me. Her eyes burned a hole straight through me. I shrank back, worried she might strike out and kill me, simply to save herself the trouble of dealing with the aftermath of what the night Luc and I had spent together would mean... but thankfully she stayed where she was.

"Hey," I choked out, after several moments of awkward silence.

She didn't reply and just continued to glare.

"Did... did you sleep well?" I asked, not sure what else to say.

"No," she snapped. "The Beast screamed in the middle of the night and woke me up. And then, with all the other noise, it was impossible to get back to sleep." Her eyes narrowed further, and I noticed that there were dark shadows encircling them.

"R-Right," was the only thing I could muster; my cheeks suddenly felt very hot. Last night, in the moment, I hadn't even considered the thinness of the walls.

An awkward silence hung between us for a moment, before Polly spit out a snarl that rivalled any noise the Beast had made; it sent the same shivers up my spine. "What the fuck were you thinking, Rachel?!" she growled. "Sleeping with him? Are you fucking serious?"

"I... I was... I was testing a theory!"

Polly squeezed her eyes shut, and her mouth opened and closed several times like she was at a loss for what to say or how to react. But she eventually found her words... "A theory? What the fuck are you on about?"

I sighed and steeled myself, mentally preparing for infuriating her further. "Yesterday, when I went into his room, we didn't just... talk."

Expecting another torrent of curses, I cringed again, but Polly just looked like she had been struck dumb. "What? You weren't even in there long enough to fuck him!"

My brow folded in. "That's because we didn't fuck—" I spat the word back; it felt like a gross mischaracterization of what had happened between Luc and me, "—but we did kiss. And after, when some of his powers returned, I wondered if, maybe, our kiss had something to do with it."

"So, of course, your first instinct was to sleep with him?" she retorted, one of her eyebrows rising.

My frown deepened. "It wasn't like that. He said that we needed to trust him again, remember? And being, uh, intimate... with someone requires a lot of trust, and—"

She cut me off with a wave of her hand, her nose scrunching up at the bridge. "Whatever, I don't need the details," she said. "Did your little 'experiment' even work?"

The memory of the dresser drawers shooting out all at once flashed through my mind. "I think it did. I mean, not all of his powers are back, because he needs you to—"

Her gaze sharpened. "What? Do I have to fuck him now too?"

"No!" I shot back, horrified. "That's not what I mean!"

But she just ignored me and continued, "Because I can tell you right now that will never happen. I won't stoop to that level."

My eyes stung as tears began to form. I tried to remind myself that she was just lashing out because she was upset; I swallowed hard, trying to choose my response carefully so I didn't say something I'd regret...But before I could say anything else, the door to Luc's bedroom popped open behind me; Polly and I whipped around to look.

Luc staggered out into the living room, rubbing at his eyes and stifling a yawn. As soon his eyes fell on me, a smile broke across his handsome face. "There you are. I was wondering where you went—" he stopped short as soon as he saw the tight expression on my face; then he glanced past me and caught sight of Polly. His face blanched as he took in her withering glare. "Oh."