Another nod.

“I’m sorry. Um—do you want to talk about it?”

Silence.

“Ok—I understand. I probably wouldn’t want to talk about it either. Do you want me to turn the light on in your room or something?”

He shakes his head no.

“Um, okay,” Carmen rests her hand on her forehead, trying to figure out what to say next.

Suddenly Shay bolts on to the bed and climbs to the top. He sticks his feet under the covers and stares back at Carmen with his big eyes and his tear-stained face.

Carmen smiles. ‘He just wanted to sleep with his big sister is all—what a cutie,’ she thought.

“Ok how about we swap beds for the night, yeah? I know you and Shane missed each other.”

She gets up and walks towards the door.

“Carmen?”

“Yeah?” She turns around to look at him.

“It’s your bed too, you know.”

“Yeah I know, but right now I think you need time with your sister more than I do.”

“Why don’t you like me?”

“What? What are you talking about, Shay? I couldn’t wait to meet you! Of course I like you.”

“Well if you like me then why are you leaving?”

“I-I just thought–” She didn’t know what to say. She took a deep breath, “Shay do you want me to stay, too?

He just shrugged, “If you want.”

She smiles and crawls back in bed next to him.

Shane blinks her eyes open.

She turns around to see Shay passed out with Carmen’s arm wrapped protectively around him. She can’t help but smile at the sight of it. She leans over to the nightstand to grab her briefs and  tank top. Then she quietly gets out of bed and tiptoes over to her phone to take a picture, but she doesn’t realize that the sound is turned up so when the camera goes off, Shay blinks his eyes open.

“Shane!” he whines. “I was sleeping. Go away!”

“Somebody is cranky in the mornings!”

Carmen hears them talking and wakes up, “Just like somebody else I know,” she smiles.

Shane fakes a look of surprise. “I don’t know who you could be talking about. So how did this rug rat end up in bed with us?”

“I had a bad dream, so I was going to come find you but then I opened the door and I didn’t want to bother you, but Carmen said it was okay if I slept with you guys.”

“Of course it’s okay, Shay. You can come crawl in with us whenever you need to, okay?”

He nods his head.

“Ok,” Shane says. “Now that that’s settled, lets figure out breakfast. I don’t have to go back to work til tomorrow so today we can just hang out.”

“Wait—I don’t have to go to school?”

Shane smiles. “Of course you have to go to school, but we are going to wait til that shiner heals before you start. Also I think maybe we should take you to the doctor to get your side looked at.”

He wrinkles his nose and frowns.

Carmen sees this and rolls her eyes jokingly, “I know—isn’t that terrible of your sister? She is going to force you to go to the doctor to make sure that you are ok. What a terrible person she is.”

Shay gives her a lopsided smirk.

“Ok, pancakes anyone?” Shane says as she scoops the little boy up and throws him over her shoulder. Carmen gets out of bed and follows them down the hall.