The Boys of Blueberries

15

Sabina usually doesn't barge in on any of her friend's homes like this: frantic, short of breath, mind running a hundred miles per hour, car parked horrendously outside the gate. She doesn't barge in at all, actually.

And there are things she doesn't want to see in her lifetime—and one of them is Andy on Rhysand's lap with his back against the headboard, hands running up and down her sides, kissing sounds.

Granted, it's their home and their bed, but Sabina needs to talk to her friends, and she has to be in the company of her friends, and she's not going to MJ because MJ won't understand—she's had an amazing family all her life and she has amazing and supportive parents who love her and went to therapy with her and let her take a gap year—she doesn't understand a broken family and Sabina needs someone who has a broken family.

Like her. Like Andy.

"I need to talk to you," she says, holding the door wide open.

Andy has become less and less flustered and embarrassed whenever she's caught being intimate with Rhysand. Before, she'd scream, blush down to her neck and chest, and cover her face, sputtering words.

Now, married, she just pulls her head back and sighs, hands on her husband's shoulders. Rhysand moves his head to the side and stares at Sabina. His eyes are deadly. "I didn't agree to you having the security code to our home for this, Sabina."

She waves her arm dismissively. "You can have her later, I need her now. I'm sorry, I am, but it's an emergency. Your thing can wait."

Andy starts to slide off Rhysand's lap. She leans over and kisses him on the cheek, whispering in his ear.

Rhysand's face doesn't change, but his jaw ticks.

"Andrea," Sabina says sternly. "Stop dirty talking."

"I am not," Andy huffs. She pushes Rhysand with a grin as she grabs a pillow and hugs it, sitting cross-legged on her mattress. "Go to the kitchen or something, baby."

Rhysand grunts and stands up, keeping his eyes on Sabina.

Sabina rolls her eyes. "Yes, you're being kicked out of your own room. Sisters before misters."

"Shut up," he says, passing by her. He closes the door gently when he leaves.

Andy pats the space next to her. "This better be important, Sab, I kicked my husband out for this."

Sabina doesn't sit. She takes a staggering breath and says, "Tristan has a kid."

Her friend's smile fades. "Okay. Important. But I—what do you mean?"

"I like you and I want to bang you is a different story from I have a kid," Sabina says. "It's a different. Story, Andy."

"I—" Andy blinks multiple times, holding a hand up. "He's a dad?"

"I don't want a kid," Sabina says. "I don't. I've never wanted one."

"Sab, breathe."

"He put me in a position where I just have to accept that he has a kid, he's raising a kid," Sabina rambles on. Her mouth is dry and her voice is shaky. "Well, it's not really his, it's his nephew, but he's raising this tiny breathing thing, he has art supplies and toys and a babysitter."

Andy crawls over the bed, grabs her hands firmly, and demands, "Sab. Calm down. Take a breath for me."

Sabina looks at Andy, swallows hard, and mutters, "Andy. I don't want to raise a kid."

"I understand that." Her blue eyes are big and worried, lines on her forehead. "Tristan isn't asking you to raise him, is he?"

Sabina shakes her head once. "No."