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Emily blinks. “So… we’re doing what today?”
Lily sighs. “Tomorrow’s Sammy’s first day back,” she says. “So, I’m letting them have the apartment to themselves. A little bonding. To give ‘em their spark, you know?”
“Spark?” Jack asks.
Lily rolls her eyes. “Can’t let King Falls have bad radio, dumbass.”
Emily smiles, and gives Jack a knowing look. Lily hates that people can actually see through her bullshit. Or, at least, she hates that people know her well enough to openly see through her bullshit. Most were too scared to say.
“So, in normal people words,” Jack says slowly, “you want Sammy and Ben to have the apartment to themselves because it’s been a few months since they’ve had their bro time and you know how much they need bro time.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m getting too,” Emily says lightly. She holds up her hand and Jack high fives her. “Even though Sammy isn’t technically going back yet. He’s just guest starring for Ben’s emotional support tomorrow.”
Lily sighs again.
“Anyway,” Lily continues. “We could probably say we’re going shopping or something. Jack definitely needs new clothes. If I have to see him wearing Sammy’s Weezer t-shirt one more time I’ll cry.”
“I’ve missed out on five years of wearing his clothes, Lil,” Jack retorts.
“He’s like, two shirt sizes smaller than you, Jackson.”
“Yeah, well, I can rock a crop-top, Lillian.”
Emily sighs. “I get it,” she says. “You guys are siblings. Who now live together after a while of not doing so. That doesn’t mean you have to subject me to this.”
“Oh, I would never subject you to anything, Miss Potter,” Lily says, voice instantly smooth. “That is, nothing that you don’t want.” She winks.
“Are your names even Jackson and Lillian?”
“No,” Lily says, at the same time that Jack says “Nope!” and pops the P.
It’s Emily’s turn to sigh dramatically, but she can’t pull off being annoyed the same way that Lily can. The pastel eyeliner really throws it off. God, she’s pretty, though. Seriously, if she and Ben weren’t so godawful sweet, she would flirt much more seriously. “So we’re going shopping?” she asks, finally.
“I thought I was banned from shopping after the Incident,” Jack says.
Lily waves her hand. “Em and I are here. It’s no biggie. We’ll keep you in check.”
“Are Ben and Sammy even awake?” Jack asks.
Emily shakes her head. “Sammy doesn’t wake up until eleven unless forced and Ben was up until three because he was so anxious about going back to the show tomorrow.”
“Is he medicated for anxiety?” Lily asks. “He probably should be.”
“He probably should be,” Emily agrees. “Man. They’re going to have to reset their sleep schedules again. I’m going to have to reset my sleep schedule again.”
“You’re not the one who works 2-6 a.m., Potter.”
“Yeah, well, my boyfriend does, and I sleep in his bed most nights, so I better get used to it.”
Jack says, lighthearted, “What, do you go into the library at three in the morning while the boys are on the radio?”
Emily winces. “Well, not lately,” she says. “There was an… incident.”
“An incident that starts with D and ends with Ebby,” Lily adds. Then Jack winces.
“Ah,” he says. “Sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Emily says.
He shrugs. “Well, not yet,” he says. Now Lily herself winces.
“Let’s change the subject,” Lily says.
“Yes, let’s,” Emily agrees.
“So, shopping,” Jack says. “Not grocery shopping? Just like, going to a mall?”
“I’m the shortest, so I get to ride in the cart,” Lily says loudly.
“Transphobia,” Emily declares. “I didn’t choose to be five eleven.”
Lily gives her the middle finger. “I’m with Emily here,” Jack says. She gives him her other middle finger.
“Well then, I’m driving,” Jack says. “If I have no hope whatsoever of riding in the cart. Despite being so weak… I was in the Void for so long… my legs might give out…”
“Pussy,” Lily says.
“Bitch,” Jack returns.
“I hope you fall over while we’re in the clearance section of Kohl’s.”
“Does King Falls even have a Kohl’s?”
“Guys!” Emily says. Lily realizes that she and Jack have accidentally gotten into each other’s faces and left her out. “Again? Seriously? I just told you to stop it with the sibling shit.”
“It’s a twin thing,” Jack says teasingly.
“Yeah, well, make sure you remember who’s older, you ass.”
Emily clears her throat. Lily sighs and nods. “Glad we’ve reached an understanding,” she says. “Now, Jack, are you driving? Or are you too weak from the Void?”
Jack pouts. Lily snickers. “I like it when you get mean, Potter,” she says. “I like that you’re a bit of a secret jerk.”
Emily smiles winningly. “Thank you.”
“I can driiive,” Jack complains. “But I think I should get to ride in the cart.”
“Maybe we can draw straws,” Emily says. She leaves the rest of her coffee on the kitchen counter. Lily knows that she does this because Ben will awake a few hours later and, in a bedraggled fashion, grab the mug, take a sip, make a face, put it in the microwave until it’s warm again, and proceed to drink the rest of it. “C’mon,” Emily says. “We ready to go?”
“I don’t even have my binder on,” Jack complains. “It’s like, seven thirty in the morning. Can’t we wait a minute?”
“Also, are we sure Stevens won’t freak if you’re gone, J?” Lily says, making her voice slightly more serious. She doesn’t make it completely serious, because she’s Lily Wright, and she sticks to her brand. Everything she says is at least tinged with sarcasm. People like her don’t have emotions like everyone else is allowed to.
However, when it comes to Sammy and Jack, she can bend the rules. Not break them, but bend.
“Okay, here’s the plan, then,” Emily says, because she likes to plan. “We leave in ten minutes. Jack, go put clothes on, and wake up Sammy enough to tell him where you’re going. Text him too, in case he wakes up and doesn't remember it. Lily, text Ben so he’ll see it when he gets up too. I’ll get the car running, because it’s probably frosted over. God, I can’t believe it’s already November.”
“Sounds like a deal, Em,” Jack says, and he heads to his and Sammy’s room. Lily goes to Ben’s room, because that’s where she keeps her clothes. She sleeps on the couch but the couch doesn’t really have a closet and Ben owns about ten shirts total, so he doesn’t mind sharing. Lily doesn’t bother to text him because she lives to cause chaos, but she writes where they’re going on a sticky note (Ben keeps several pads next to his bed) and sticks it carefully to his forehead.
Promptly ten minutes later, Jack’s in the driver’s seat, Emily’s in the passenger seat, and Lily is stuck in the back. Because her brother and best girl friend are the worst people she knows.
“I get shotgun on the way back,” Lily grumbles.
“Oh, I didn’t know you liked men now,” Jack says, voice completely serious. “It’s a little rude that you’re going for my fiancé, but I do understand-“
“Fuck you and die.”
Jack winks at her in the rear view mirror. Emily sighs deeply.
The ride to the King Falls mall isn’t a long one. Well, technically, the mall is just barely inside the border of Big Pine, but it’s honestly closer to the main town of King Falls than that of Big Pine. And the name is “King Pines Mall”, which is just about the whitest possible name you can come up with. So King Falls citizens call it the King Falls mall and Big Pine citizens call it the Big Pine mall. Neither get mad at the other.
But it’s really only fifteen minutes there on a sunny day where people are out clogging the downtown streets, backing up traffic. At seven forty-five in the morning in November, the sleepy town is just that—sleepy. It’s good practice for Jack, too. His physical therapist thinks that getting good at driving will be good exercise for his legs.
The parking lot is basically empty. This fills Lily with joy. Nothing better than an empty mall with your friends.
“Okay, so we should probably decide where we’re going while we’re here,” Emily says. “We shouldn’t just run around and pick stores at random.”
“Emily, love of my life, apple of my eye,” Lily says, and Emily smiles exasperated but fondly, “have you met me and Jack?”
“You run a professional podcast and Jack is a professional radio producer.”
“No, no. Have you met me and Jack, in a store, together?”
“I can’t say I have.”
Lily grins. Lily Wrights aren’t allowed emotions like other people but for Sammy, Jack, and lately, Emily Potter, she can bend the rules. “Well, I hope you’re excited,” Jack says.
“Lily,” Emily says dryly, “I thought you were helping me keep Jack in check. We don’t want another Incident.”
“I’ll try my hardest!” Lily replies, and she gets out of the car before Emily can protest more.
They end up in Claire’s first. All three of them are grown adults, two over and one almost thirty. And they are in Claire’s, and Lily is trying to figure out which set of earrings has the better deal. And—Christ on a bicycle—Emily is actually looking through the headbands with interest.
“Do they do nose piercings here?” Jack asks Lily. She makes an Idon’tknow noise. He turns to the kid at the register who can’t be older than seventeen and asks, “Do you do nose piercings here?”
They shake their head. “Not right now,” they say.
“You do them later?”
“When there’s someone here who knows how, yeah. Like, maybe around two or three? I dunno for sure though.”
“Thanks,” Jack says, because he’s always been unbearably polite.
“I’ll get this set,” Lily says, because she’s not. The kid checks her out and she doesn’t bother to say thanks. “Em, you coming?” she calls.
Emily peeks out from behind another rack of girly hairbrushes. “Do you like this one or this one better?” she asks brightly, holding up two headbands. One is hot pink with white stars on it and the other is light blue with white swirls.
“Blue,” Lily says, at the same time that Jack says, “Pink.”
“I hate twins,” Emily says. She puts both the headbands back. “I really don’t need either anyway.” She waves sweetly to the kid at the register, who looks a bit confused about the whole encounter, but waves back anyway.
“Do they have Auntie Anne’s in King Falls?” Jack asks. Lily makes an Idon’tknow sound. He asks it again, directing his question to Emily: “Do they have Auntie Anne’s in King Falls?”
Emily squints, which means she’s thinking about it. “Uh… I don’t remember anything like that. What is it?”
Jack slumps. “It’s like, the best pretzel place ever. Where Lil and I grew up, all the malls had them. My absolute favorite pretzels ever. Nothing compares.”
“We have Uncle Eugene’s?” Emily offers. “They sell hot pretzels.”
“What the fuck is an Uncle Eugene?” Lily asks, mildly horrified.
“A pretzel place…?”
“Do you think the Void would take me back if I asked?” Jack says casually. “I don’t know if I want to live in a world without Auntie Anne’s.”
Lily elbows him. Jack glares at her. “Just be glad Sammy isn’t here. He would yell at you for making that joke. He’d be all like well if I have to stop making depression jokes you don’t get to make Void jokes, bitch!”
“I don’t think he would call me a bitch, Lils.”
“You missed five years of him being a bitch. He’s… well, I was going to say he’s grown a pair, but that comes too close to complimenting him. Instead I’ll say he’s put up with shit and now isn’t afraid to say the fuck word live.”
“Didn’t Sammy say worse things than fuck back during Shotgun nights?” Emily asks curiously.
“I mean, it was more of a persona, but yeah, he did,” Jack replies. “But fine, to return to the point, I’ll stop with the Void jokes. I just think they’re really funny.”
“Joking about trauma doesn’t really help you heal,” Emily adds.
Jack gives her a look. She raises an eyebrow at him. She wins and Jack crumples under her gaze. “Stop therapizing me,” he grumbles. Emily winks at Lily.
They’ve just been wandering through the mall for the last few minutes. Lily sees the store ahead of them and decides, why the hell not? they might as well.
And she swears, she really wasn’t trying to be mean to Jack. Sorry that the first store that caught her gaze was a wedding planning store! And c’mon Jack, you know I love to go wandering into the first store to catch my attention. You know this. And well, if you’re just so happening to be engaged to someone and that someone is a very popular radio personality in the tri-state area and by accidentally mentioning your name we got a lot of attention, well…
Actually, yeah. It was entirely Lily’s fault. But God, if this isn’t hilarious.
Sometimes Lily forgets that King Falls AM is, well, listened to by the greater area. People in Big Pine have heard the wishes and woes of her almost brother-in-law for like, five and a half years. They heard the whole Frickard scandal, heard the Christmas fiasco, heard the tapes that Sammy and Ben played over the air after everything was said and done.
(Everyone deserved to know the gist of how it went, Ben had argued, and Lily couldn’t disagree. So they played the tapes. She was against recording from the start, but they played the damn tapes.)
All of this to say that Jack is currently surrounded by excited wedding planners who know him by osmosis and by Sammy’s love—well, fine, and Lily’s own love, she guesses—that has played live to the tri-state. People are asking him the color scheme, what the rings should look like, where it will be held. Emily’s with him, trying to help Jack who is mildly overwhelmed, but Lily’s standing off to the side gasping for air because she’s laughing so hard.
Jack, a six foot rugby player, in the middle of a wedding store in the King Falls mall. Someone just put a veil on his head. His face is entirely red. Every time Lily catches her breath, someone else asks a question and she loses it again.
She’s the funniest person alive. Lily should mess with him more often, now that he’s back and they aren’t not-talking.
“This is the most disappointing Kohl’s I’ve ever been in,” Lily declares, looking around her.
The place is only one floor, and barely bigger than a shoe store. It’s tiny. There aren’t even any insane deals!
“Are other Kohl’s-es not like this?” Emily asks. “What’s the plural of Kohl’s? Is it just Kohl’s?”
“Say Kohl’s one more time and I’ll cry,” Jack says, lips still pink from the makeup the wedding store offered him.
“I was wondering if they still took Kohl’s cash,” Lily mopes. “But this place is so small. There’s no way.”
“I wonder if they accept Kohl’s cash from 2014,” Jack muses. “Probably not.”
Emily hums. “If I were them, I would accept it simply out of awe. Imagine holding on to it for that long.”
Jack shakes his head as he gets into character. “Well you see, Ms. Kohl’s worker,” he says in a high pitched voice, “I was in this kind of nothing space because I got obsessed with your mountain town’s supernatural lore and time didn’t really pass for me. I will say though, this Kohl’s cash survived both the Void and shadows and darkness incarnate possessing my body all while staying in my jacket pocket, so whatever you make this shit out of is good.”
Emily snickers. “I thought they just printed it off.”
Jack shrugs. “Well, that’s a true story, so. It’s some damn fine printer paper.”
Lily turns to see the single Kohl’s employee present at eight in the morning staring at them in mild awe. She kind of forgot that the place was small enough that anyone could hear their conversation. She elbows Jack, who seems to come to this conclusion as soon as she does, and he bolts out of the store.
Emily pinches her nose. “C’mon, Lily,” she says. “Before he makes a scene.”
“So… Uncle Eugene’s…”
“Is literally just Auntie Anne’s.”
“Jack, did you find anything about this in your research before the Shadowmaker took you?”
They don’t come home until around four in the afternoon. Emily’s worried that she’ll have to help Sammy make dinner, since he’s better at baking and she likes to do the cooking. Considering the small amount of money that Lily and Emily make and the lack of money that Jack makes, there is a Not Good number of bags in the trunk of Ben’s shitty car.
“Ten bucks says Sammy slept until noon and then they watched When Harry Met Sally instead of actually bonding,” Lily says when they’re just a minute or two from the apartment.
“I’m not taking that bet,” Emily says softly.
“Fifteen says that Sammy tried to get Ben to eat some entirely organic food and Ben claimed he was allergic,” Jack says.
“I’m not taking that one either,” Emily says, less softly. Jack pulls into their parking spot outside the apartment.
As they’re climbing the stairs, Emily says, “I bet twenty that Ben got him to watch that Mothman documentary. The one he said was super emotional.”
Lily opens her mouth wide. “No way. Sammy refuses to watch that!”
“You have a bet,” Jack says.
“I’m in, too,” Lily agrees.
Emily smiles mischievously. She puts her key in the lock and swings the door open.
Instantly, Lily smells burnt popcorn. And possibly burnt toast. You know, it might just be the smell of burnt food, really. It is not pleasant. “Jesus,” she says. “Open a fucking window, you guys, really!”
Sammy looks up from the couch, hastily rubbing at his cheeks. “Oh, hey.”
Ben jumps up from the couch and runs over to Emily. “Em,” he says, “look!”
And lo and behold, to Lily’s absolute and utter disappointment, is that fucking Mothman documentary. And Sammy is crying.
Jack dejectedly pulls a twenty out of his back pocket. “Where did you even get a twenty?” Lily asks. “You don’t have a job and you were trapped in a shadow hellscape for five years.”
“Don’t ask me no questions and I won’t tell you no secrets,” Jack replies, and Emily gleefully takes the twenty from his hand.
“What the fuck did you guys even do?” Lily asks, turning her attention to Ben so she can avoid meeting Emily’s eyes as she pays her. “Why does it smell like the Devil’s asshole in here?”
“Ben tried to make popcorn,” Sammy says, not bothering to get up from the couch.
“The microwave setting for popcorn was too strong! I didn’t know that!”
“And then I tried to teach him how to make spaghetti, since it’s really hard to get wrong.”
“Emily, tell Sammy that you can’t actually burn water. It wasn’t my fault.”
“And then I tried to make scrambled eggs.”
“The pan broke when I was going to flip it!”
Emily giggles. “Ben,” she says, “why would you flip scrambled eggs? That’s not how you make them.”
Ben looks up at her with big eyes. “I don’t know,” he confesses. “I thought that’s how you make eggs.”
Sammy sighs deeply. Lily looks at him and says, “I would save the sass when you don’t have tear stains on your face from a Mothman show.”
“I do not!” he squawks.
Jack sighs affectionately. He puts his bags down on the floor (“Wait,” Sammy says, “why are there three bags from Claire’s? What did you guys get in Claire’s?”) and walks over to the couch, and sits down next to Sammy, and puts his arm around his shoulder.
“I don’t know how you guys get into so much trouble in just a few hours,” Jack says fondly.
“Boys night?” Ben asks more than answers.
“Benny,” Emily says, “it’s four in the afternoon.”
And Lily laughs, because they’re like her brothers, and she loves them, and they’re so fucking stupid, and Emily is forty dollars richer, and the Mothman documentary is still playing because Sammy seems to have lost the fucking remote. And Ben’s going back to the station tonight and things are starting to become right and settled again. Lily doesn’t know when she defined right and settled as having the Sammy and Ben show running from 2-6 a.m., but she does.
“God, you guys are stupid,” she says, and grabs the bags so she can show Sammy and Ben the stuff they bought and they can all laugh together.