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Part XIV

Asher, in all of her confident bravado, swaggered over to him. When she pointed at him, she asked, "Is this Dustin? Hmm, He's cute."

I face palmed. We were here to steal a key card, not so Asher could hit on my brother. Corin hides a snicker behind her hand. Dustin's smug smirk has vanished, and now he seems a bit stunned. He's never been good in situations regarding girls that aren't me, so I answer for him, "Don't you dare, Asher; he's engaged."

"Please, Malone, would I ever try to make you or your family uncomfortable like that?"

I look her dead in the eyes, "You will every day for the rest of my life."

Asher looked to Corin, a facade of shock and surprise taking over her face. Corin just shrugged and nodded. Asher pouted. Point Malone.

Dustin looked slightly confused and shocked at the appearance of not one, but three teenage girls in heavy makeup rummaging through our parents' sock drawer. Not to mention that one of them was hitting on him. I forgot how weird our new arrangement is to people that are not involved.

His shock seemed to pass and his smug grin was back. He looked both Corin and Asher over, "So who are the new friends? More runaways or just someone you met along the way?"

I glowered back. "Oh, good one, That's the only good comeback you've ever had," and pointed and each of them, "This is Asher and Corin."

Corin, apparently the only one of us that has any manners left, held out her hand for a handshake. "Nice to meet you."

They shook and I learned that Asher's version of of a classy greeting is a wink. I sighed again. It seems like that is the only thing I ever do around her.

Dustin seemed to like both of them and he motioned for us to come into the guest bedroom. After stuffing my mom's keycard into my bag, I follow.

He closes the curtains on his window, and then pins a sheet, too.

"Just in case," he tells us.

The girls seem kind of suspicious, but I just nod. If I had to trust one person not to sell us out, it would be Dustin. Even if he was a socially awkward jerk at times.

"So I see you've made some new friends from the station," I say, referencing the policemen guarding the front door.

"Yeah, they're good people, just really serious about their jobs. When I came home from break, they wouldn't let me into the house without running a full background check on my driver's license. It was really embarrassing standing there on the porch until Dad came home from work."

We all laugh, but I laugh the hardest, thinking about him standing on the porch in clothes that don't match, because he hates doing laundry and wears whatever he can instead of doing it himself. Oh, Dustin. Following the laughing fit he gave us, Dustin dives into the deep stuff. "So what are you doing breaking into one of the only places that they want you to break into?"

I look around, trying to avoid his eyes, "Would you believe me if I told you that I was just home sick?"

He scoffed and I could feel Corin and Asher freeze up behind me, ready to make a break for it whenever necessary.

"Okay fine, I just needed something from my room. Happy?"

He shook his head, "Then what could you possibly be doing in mom and dad's room?"

Ugh. Why can't he just leave this alone? "I, um, I'm just," I stuttered, looking for an excuse, when Corin interrupts. "She borrowed your mom's scarf the day she was taken and even though we told her it was stupid to come back here, she insisted, so we came."

I smiled hesitantly, "Yeah, she always gets upset when I don't return her clothes, so I thought it needed to be done."

I could tell he didn't buy it. Corin knew he wasn't buying it. Asher knew he wasn't buying it. Somewhere, behind his desk, my dad probably knew that Dustin wasn't buying it. The whole world knew my brother, Dustin Brinkley, wasn't buying it. I internally sighed. Why must my life be so hard?

I looked at my parent's bed in frustration and almost fainted. There was a scarf on her bed. A beautiful, coral and mint green patterned, infinity scarf lying on the bed. I knew karma owed us one. I'd like to take the time to thank whatever entity graced me with the one lucky break I needed that day. "See? It's the one on the bed, you know it's my favorite."

He looked, and sure enough, there it was, he saw it and scowled. Whew, I thought I might have been hallucinating. He breathed in deep through his nose and sighed. "Whatever, Malone."

I inwardly cheered and groaned. I was simultaneously glad he didn't press the issue and disappointed that I wasn't going to have to tell him everything. I would have felt a little better if he would have been in this crazy plot with me. Oh, well. I didn't know what he would say, if he would side with mom or not. He was getting a biology major, so maybe he would say I should go back and submit to testing for science.

Probably. We better just go. The silence is slowly strangling me when Asher clears her throat. "Well," she starts, "we had better get out of here."

"Yep, wouldn't want to get caught with that scarf." Corin joins in a little too cheerfully.

A barking laugh escapes my throat, "Yeah, we'd better get going. Don't worry I'll show myself and my companions out."

I watched my brother's face, searching for anything to tell me what he was thinking. He smiled a little and sighed again. "I don't know what you ladies are doing out there, and frankly, I really don't want to find out. Just be careful," and looking at my friends, "and the date of my wedding is June 18th. You're not allowed to skip, any of you. Especially you missy."

He looks away, blinking hard, and with that he pulled me into the bear hug of the century, whispering all about safety and that kind of thing before pulling away and walking out of the room and back down the hallway.

I find myself blinking really hard as well, and with that we take our leave the same way we came in.