She produced a water bottle from literally nowhere, holding it out like it was a sacred offering. How did she even have that? We were in a car two seconds ago. Did she have some kind of emergency water bottle pocket sewn into her costume?
"Why would I need water?"
"Because girls crying dehydrate themselves faster than you'd think." Iris shoved it into my hands with the kind of authority that suggested this was based on extensive research rather than fourteen-year-old speculation. "And because you're going to be there a while."
"I'm not—"
"Big brother?" She went up on her toes, kissed my cheek like she used to when she was little and I'd walk her to elementary school, back when our biggest worry was whether the free lunch program would have enough food for everyone. "You're allowed to care about people. It's not illegal."
My chest did something weird. Tight and warm and painful all at once, like my heart was trying to remember how to feel things it had forgotten how to process.
