Free Sun Poisoned (The Sunshine Series) by Nikki Rae

near the base of his hand, one long, desperate indent carved diagonally from wrist to elbow. They're barely visible, but I see them. I trace the long line slowly, then the other shorter ones.
    “That's impossible,” he whispers.
    I jump at his voice.
    “You can see them?” he asks.
    “ I'm not supposed to be able to see them?”
    Myles shrugs when I look up at him, obviously not as confused as I am.  ”It could be something left over from when we exchanged blood,” he says. “Maybe you can sense certain things about me now.” He turns his head to the side like a thought's just occurred to him. “Scars are something you're already sensitive about. . .so maybe it isn't so crazy that you can now see mine.”
    Great. Just what I needed to graduate Normal Academy. But I give Myles a small smile anyway.
    He smiles back. “Thank you for letting me share that with you. I feel a lot better.”
    “ You don't have to thank me, Myles.” I'm guessing he doesn't share things like this very often by the look on his face.
    “ Can we. . .lie back down now? I'm tired.” He almost sounds surprised.
    Scooting over, I replace my head on the pillow and he follows suit, taking one from the floor near him.
    “That’s what telling secrets does to you,” I try to joke, and thankfully, he laughs a little when we’re both on our sides facing each other.
    “ Do you want me to put my shirt back on?” he asks after a moment.
    I honestly hadn’t thought about it since he took it off. “It’s not bothering me.”
    He smiles again as his eyes begin to close. I’m not far behind him.
    My hand finds Myles’ and guides it over the blanket where the forest of scars lies on my leg beneath. My fingers rest on his own dark, secret parts. I stare at the ceiling of the fort, it’s patchwork of plain white sheets and tie dyed swirls. The light from the TV glints on the safety pins holding them together. Just before I let sleep take me away for the night, I trace a star on Myles’ wrist with my index finger, and he does the same over the blanket.

    New Friends
    Chapter 4
    “ Everybody I know has got fangs.”—He is Legend
     
    I manage to sleep the whole night through without having a single nightmare or memory—mine or someone else’s. I don’t have to be anywhere until twelve, but I wake up early, not even tired. Myles, once his shirt is back on, helps me take down the fort and fold up blankets. I want to do nothing more than just hang out with him today, but that’s not an option. Boo and Trei are counting on me to practice with them, then I have to meet Honus for rehearsing their songs with them, and then I’m working at Midnight until one AM again. It’s going to be a long day, but one filled with music, so it can’t be half-bad.
    So Boo, Trei, and I go through the Radiohead covers we decided on over a week ago, but can’t quite grasp playing. Well, I know my parts as if they were ingrained in the backs of my eyelids. It’s Boo and Trei that can’t follow me. It’s not like I can get mad at them for it. They know how to read music and I don’t. It’s like they’re speaking English and I’m speaking in some strange dead language that few people even learn anymore.
    But. We get a rough skeleton of what we want for each song, and that takes long enough. We part ways, agreeing that a break would be a really amazing idea for tomorrow even if it might come back to bite us in the ass.
    As I’m leaving our practice room to go to Honus’, Jamie stops me. Boo and Trei are still hanging out in the hallway when they left before me, and they’re smiling.
    “What?” I ask.
    “ We just got paid,” Trei says.
    “ Already?” I ask Jamie.
    He pushes his useless glasses up on the bridge of his nose. He produces a white envelope. “Congratulations.”
    My finger is just under the flap when Boo says, “It’s a lot.”
    I glance back up, Trei nods.
    I’ve gotten many checks in my life. I worked since I was old enough because I