Free Overnight by Adele Griffin Page A

without them? Alone?
    Gray emerged from the bathroom. She saw Katrina lying on the couch, the remote control in her hand. Drew was standing behind her, staring sulkily out the window and biting the edge of his thumb.
    “I’m hungry,” said Gray.
    Katrina nodded. “Me, too.”
    “No, I mean, I’m really hungry.”
    “Me, too. I’d like some chickpeas and feta cheese.”
    “You don’t understand. If I don’t eat something, I might faint,” said Gray.
    Although she had never fainted in her life, not even when she stepped on a glass bottle on the beach and was taken to the hospital, where she got five stitches. That afternoon was scary. She’d thought she might faint plenty of times. When she saw flies land on her blood that spattered dark across the sand. When the doctor, meaning to be helpful, showed her the black stitching thread. When she caught sight of the metal butterfly clip that pinched the skin back into place.
    But she had not fainted. Not once.
    She was not about to faint now, either. But if Drew and Katrina refused to give her something to eat, then she might deduce some clues about them. That they were criminals or something.
    “There’s no food here,” said Katrina.
    Drew was making a slow lap of the room, peering out each frost-smudged window. “If they came by and didn’t see the car, I guess they’ll be back,” he said.
    “Do you have a cell phone?” Gray asked Drew politely. She tried to imagine what was happening at the Donnelley house. It was cake time, maybe. Or presents. She wished she had put on her watch this morning.
    “Why, who do you want to talk to? You can’t call anyone right now. I don’t need to add you to my problems.” Drew dismissed Gray with an impatient glare. “What are you saying, there’s no food left, huh, Kat? There’s gotta be something.”
    “Nope.” Katrina shifted. “I looked already. Hand me that blanket?” She pointed to the blanket Gray had left on the floor by the front door.
    Drew picked up the blanket and walked over to Katrina and dropped it on her in a heap. “What’s that junk all over your face?”
    Katrina touched her cheek and spoke in her baby-girl way. “The ladies made me up at the department store. They did it for free, for my party. They gave me a free lipstick, too. Mango Tango, it’s called.”
    “Kat, for crying out loud! There is no party!”
    “Well, I think that’s a shame.” Katrina pulled her arms over her head and yawned. “You know what? I’m going back to bed.” She shook off the blanket, stood up from the couch, stretched, and touched her toes.
    “I could go see if there’s some food in the kitchen,” Gray offered.
    It was as if she had not spoken at all.
    It was just like that mean game Martha and the others played against her.
    Drew returned to looking out the window, and Katrina shuffled away to the bedroom.
    Gray slipped into the kitchen and snapped on a light that popped and blew. Now the trickle from the living room was the kitchen’s only illumination. She opened the rust-edged refrigerator and inside found a sandwich furry with mold, a sandwich bag filled with carrots and celery sticks, and a couple of cans of beer.
    “Whatcha got?”
    Gray jumped. Drew had crept up behind her.
    “Nothing.”
    He reached past her and hefted a beer. “Kat wasn’t joking,” he said. He swiped the sandwich bag, too. “This’ll do us.”
    Gray nodded. Together, they sat down at a table-and-chairs set that looked better suited to ornament a pool or patio area. The chairs were padded with spongy cushions, and the plastic-topped table was thin and frail enough that Gray might have picked it up and moved it anywhere else.
    “Check the cupboard.” Drew cracked open the beer. “This is my, uh, buddy’s place and they’re out of town for the week. Which is why it’s lean on supplies.”
    Gray thought Drew might be lying to her. Aside from the spiderweb and dead mouse in the trap, she had noticed a lot of dust around