Unlucky Like Us (Like Us, #12)

by Krista Ritchie

Akara Kitsuwon Meadows

Ahhhhh

Banks Moretti Meadows

Ahhhhh

Farrow Redford Keene Hale

Ahhhhh

I just hate this shitty outcome where my dad told Donnelly to live in purgatory until his family is no longer a threat. Tears prick my eyes. Because I know, deep down, that Donnelly’s family might always be a threat. And what then? We’ll never be together.

Donnelly probably wouldn’t be beamed up with me, and I don’t really want to live on a planet where he’s not there.

“The aliens aren’t coming for you,” she deadpans. “But if you fall off the roof, you will turn into a ghost.”

“I’m not a fool, you know. I saw Donnelly talking to Dad. Then he came up here, and next thing you know, he’s sliding down your drainpipe to leave.”

“Luna,” Kinney forces out my name. “What do you want me to do?” I whisper. “Something! Don’t just stand there looking dead!”

What would Kinney do if her heart was broken? Destroy. Everything. Breath stuck in my throat, I bolt to my desk and sweep my arms across the surface. A metal lamp, Marvel comic books, and Funko Pops crash against the floor.

“Oh…kay, okay…this is good,” Kinney says, more to herself. Louder, she tells me, “Let it out, Luna. Go for the pillows!” I fling some bed pillows, my off-kilter pulse ringing in my ears. “The bookcase!” Quickly, I charge for the bookcase,

With strength—strength I didn’t realize I have—the wide bookcase lets out a sudden creak and shifts forward. Collectibles and paperbacks begin to slide at me. “Luna, not that!” Kinney shouts. “Push it back!” I don’t. I want this.

The bookcase weighs a million times more than I can brace, and as the entire wooden structure teeters forward, I want it to bury me. I want to live underneath the rubble of my childhood. Maybe it’ll be where you find me. In this single solitary moment, I’m not scared of being crushed. That should scare me, I think.

It’s at a fifty-degree angle. It’s bearing on all three of us. “We can’t,” I mutter, breath knotted inside me. “We can,” our mom says through gritted teeth,

“On the count of three, we all push our hardest, okay? One, two, three.” We push. My arms vibrate, and I hate the little voice in the back of my head, whispering that we can’t, telling me to just end it. Give. Up. Luna. I don’t want to. I don’t want to. I don’t ever want to be that person.

Wait im sobbing

“Is it moving?” Kinney questions. “Yeah,” Mom nods profusely, sweat beading her forehead. “It’s almost there.” It hasn’t budged. “Again,” Mom decrees. “One, two, three.”

We heave. I start to lose my grip and my feet slide. No, no! “Mom!” I shout as the bookcase groans and tips forward on us. This is all my fault. “Okay, we need reinforcements,” Mom realizes in a quick, panting breath. “Lo! Lo! LOREN HALE GET YOUR BUTT UP HERE!!” Her panicked words in a scream do the trick. Footsteps pound harder than my heart, and more than just my dad appears. “Jesus, Lily,” Dad says, fear encasing my mom’s name. He’s already racing into my bedroom, along with my brothers and Farrow.

I’m…ashamed. I’ve never shown my pain like Kinney, and it’s too loud and exposed.

I blink repeatedly like I’ll finally inherit teleportation. My mom says it could’ve skipped several generations, and we truly don’t know whether Great Grandma Pearl had superpowers or not. She died before I was born, but Dad always disputed the idea and said the woman never left Palm Beach. To which, Mom replied, that we know of.

Turning away from them, I go towards my bed and trip over the comics I’d thrown. My knees hit the floor. Farrow bends down, his arms around me while I crumple. A gnarled sound I’ve never heard myself make suddenly ruptures out of my lungs, and I choke on a scream. The scream morphs into me crying into my hoodie. I hate this feeling that claws at me. I hate it so much.

It’s going to be okay, Luna. I shake my head slowly. “I know…” Xander stammers for the words. “I know it feels like it never will be.”

“I know you don’t want to be here…” Xander tells me. “But you have to ignore that voice. Not forever. Just ignore it this minute, this shitty second.” This minute. This second. I inhale slowly. “Small hurdles, you know?” Xander says quietly. “You can do that. I know you can, sis. You’re way stronger than me.”

I cant

The word is lost inside my swollen throat. I start to shake my head, and Farrow looks out at Kinney like she’s so wrong. Thank you! “He’d never hurt Luna,” Farrow says like it’s unfathomable. She humphs, arms still crossed. His brows rise. “He’d sooner hurt himself, Kinney.”

“Kinney,” Dad says a quiet reprimand, his hand still on her shoulder. “What?” She twists her head to him. “It’s true, Dad. She has to be upset about Donnelly. I just know something happened, and we’re just going to do nothing?! Let’s hunt him down.” No. “Threaten his stupid mortal life and the lives of his future ugly children.” No. “That’s the least we could do—” No! I splinter open. “He didn’t do anything except want to be with me!” I shout with everything inside my heart, my throat searing and scratched.

All this time, I’ve felt protective over Donnelly. Over us. Over what we share together. And I can’t let anyone in my family think the worst of him. I just can’t. I’d rather they know the painful truth. “He didn’t do anything except want to be with me,” I tell them more clearly. “And you didn’t want to be with him?” Kinney asks with confusion. She glances to Dad. “We still might need to hunt him down.”

“What?” our mom’s eyes widen at our dad like the witch hunt was erected in her absence. And I guess it kinda was, but not by him. “There are no hunts of people. This isn’t The Hunger Games.” “Thank you, Lily,” Farrow says. “But it could be,” Kinney notes. “Oh my God,” Farrow mutters and then looks at Moffy like, your sister, man.

“Why would we hunt down Donnelly? He’s a good person.” Kinney glowers at him. “You’ve been absent for half the conversation. So don’t come in here thinking you know what’s going on.” “Jesus, Kinney. I’m just trying to understand.” “And I’m just trying to protect Luna!” She throws up her hands. “What are you all doing?! Dad is with me at least. Dad.” She turns to him again. “Shelve the pitchforks, Kinney,” he says gently and mor...

He squeezes her shoulder. “Shelve the knives, battleaxes, all weapons. We’re not pointi...

“But Dad—” “If you want to point a blade at someone, it’s going to be me—not him.”

“You didn’t do anything bad. You couldn’t…you wouldn’t?” He wears a half-smile. “Me? Do something bad? I’d never.” His sarcasm and way of cheering up Kinney lands lifeless in the tense room.

meant that if you go after Paul, you’re going to have to go through me. I’m standing in front of him, and just so everyone in the room knows”—he spins around to lock eyes with each of us, staying on me for an extended beat—“I haven’t been easy on him. I might’ve even been hell for him.” He cringes into another dry smile. “So…it’s complicated.” He claps his hands together. “Class dismissed. Let’s clean this up. Help your sister—”

“Donnelly came here tonight to ask Dad for permission to date me,” I explain. “Of what Donnelly told me, Dad said, not yet.” I turn to him for confirmation. He nods once, his neck taut and muscles flexed. “Yep. That happened.”

Farrow tips his head. “That’s definitely debatable.” “Debatable, okay.” Dad nods a lot and paces a short distance back and forth. “You know what? I have a serious problem with you right now and it’s not even funny.” Oh no.

“Me?” Farrow says. “Yeah, you,” my dad retorts. “I want to laugh. I would really goddamn love to, but this has to stop.” He raises his hands in a way like he’d love to strangle his son-in-law.

“I don’t follow, Lo.” “You. Donnelly. Acting like you’re nothing more than two hallway acquaintances.” He stakes a glare on him. “Do you know how annoying that is? Do you know how different things would’ve been if you’d just been upfront with me?”

“I’ve been upfront with you, Lo. I told you exactly the kind of person Donnelly is, and you still chose not to listen to me.” “You never said you met him when he was seventeen.” Farrow’s face screws up. “What difference would that’ve made?”

“You were teenagers.” “Okay, but what does that change? I told you that he has no bad bone in his body. I told you that he’d give you the last shirt he owns. Right off his back. Shit, I told you he’s been kind towards the women he’s been with, and he would let Luna rule his world if she wanted to. I told you he’d be there for her. I told you they’d be good together. So what the hell does us meeting as teenagers have to do with shit?” “I wish I knew what he meant to you from you or even him.

Farrow keeps shaking his head. “You left out an important part.” Farrow breathes angrier, shaking his head harder. “I didn’t.” “You forgot to tell me he’s like your brother.” It knocks Farrow one step backward.

“That’s the thing, Farrow. I had no goddamn idea the depth of how close you were to him. I didn’t know what he meant to you.” My dad cringes into a wincing smile. “And that’s the other thing, I should’ve known. It was right there in my face.”

My dad crushes the silence first. “I learned that he followed you to Yale when he was a teenager. I did some digging after that nonchalant comment from Paul, and I learned from ‘sources’ that he stayed with you for most of your adult life. I learned that you do know him better than anyone else on this fucked planet, so you can stop acting like you don’t.”

Dad sees. He blinks a lot, like he’s reassessing what he’s saying to Maximoff’s husband. “I’m not trying to blame you, Farrow. I should’ve asked more questions. I should’ve realized sooner. I’m not saying you’re at fault—” “You’re saying it would’ve made a difference,” Farrow says through clenched teeth. “I don’t advertise my relationships like they’re commercials on a fucking TV screen for other people to consume. They just exist. They are.” “I guess I missed it,” my dad says, bitterness to his words. “Maybe I didn’t even want to see it. Maybe I was afraid of what it’d mean. You and him. He’d be inescapable.”

“We don’t undercut shit,” Farrow says quietly, almost under his breath. “We know what we mean to each other, and that’s all that’s ever mattered. This is the first time it’s ever been a point of contention with anyone.” “I would’ve liked to know,” my dad says just as quietly. “It would’ve meant something to me.” “We didn’t grow up together,” Farrow reminds him. “Neither did me and my brother. I met Ryke the day I turned twenty-one.”

I imagine he’s thinking if Farrow has seen good in Donnelly for years, if Farrow loves Donnelly to his deepest, rawest core, then maybe Donnelly isn’t a bad influence or a bad guy. Maybe he’s a man worthy enough to be with his daughter. To be with me.

“I would’ve liked to know,” my dad says strongly. “It would’ve mattered. And I don’t know why it is, but the bonds we make matter to other people. I know that Ryke and Rose’s friendship matters to me. Connor and Daisy matter to me. Willow and Daisy matter. Garrison and Lily matter. Just like you and Donnelly are going to matter to me. Hell, you both may even annoy me.”

“But these relationships mean something to the people who love you. And I love you like a son, and I’m…I’m sorry I didn’t take your word beforehand. I’m sorry I’m an ass. I’ve been an ass. You deserved a father-in-law who listened, and I didn’t. But I promise, I’m going to try from now on.”

“There is something that I thought would’ve made a difference—but it was never that.” “Yeah?” my dad frowns. “Yeah.” Farrow takes a beat. “I’ve been wishing I could give you the slam-dunk: the reason you’d actually feel like shit for ever hating Donnelly, but I couldn’t. Because I love that motherfucker, and when he tells me not to say shit to you, I don’t say shit to you, but you need to ask him. At some point. You need him to tell you everything he’s done.”

“I’m getting to know him. Let’s start there, okay?” I nod, knowing it’s a beginning at least. He’s never really tried before. “But you need to put the brakes on this, Queen of Thebula.” “Dad—” “You and him. Brakes. Can you do that?” Severity sharpens his gaze. Pain flares again. “But—” “His family is dangerous, Luna. There are no buts. I’m handling this with Donnelly. It’s the team-up no one saw coming, especially me.” He touches his chest. “It’s Cyclops and Peepers.”

“Peepers?” I cringe at the worst X-Men villain ever. He did not just refer to Donnelly as Peepers. His enlarged eyes and bald head make him look like a toad. Like my dad is eating glass, he slowly amends, “Cyclops and whoever you choose.”

“Peter Parker,” I say softly. I think about Peter’s tragic backstory and light-heartedness amidst adversity as he swings between buildings with a joke and a laugh. He’s also one of my favorites. “Spider-Man.” Dad makes another cringey face. “Fine. Cyclops and Spider-Man.”

Dad looks at me with more seriousness. “And in the meantime, just use some patience.” He glances over at Mom. “Does anyone in this family have any?” Mom raises her hand. “Me.” He smiles lovingly. “Yes, you do, love.” He swings his head back to me. “Your mom will share some patience with you.” “All the patience,” Mom says to me, like we’ll get through this together.

“I’ll help.” Kinney begins to smile. “Let’s take down the Donnelly family.” Dad turns to her. “This is a solo slaughtering, little Slytherin.” She gapes. “But you just said Donnelly is helping!” “How exactly is he helping?” Farrow questions, more ire in his stance. “We’re working on it. If you want to join, I might accept your membership. We’ll see.”