“Cool?” asked Gary. “My girlfriend’s been kidnapped by dead people and you think it’s cool?” He obviously wasn’t taking it as well as my sister, and my empathy for how his world had just been scrambled allowed me to avoid overtly cringing as he called Zoe his girlfriend.
“Of course that’s not cool,” admonished Ronnie. “But think for a minute. We just learned the answer to one of life’s ultimate mysteries.”
“I don’t care about any of that! How do we get my girlfriend back?”
Again with the girlfriend. It’s like he was rubbing it in my face even while he was totally freaking out. I let it slide.
“Look,” I said. “They said they’d be in touch, right? So we wait. They won’t hurt her as long as they need me.” Besides, I didn’t add, she’s already dead, so the threat’s a little punchless.
“And what are we supposed to do while waiting for your new friends to shoot you a text?” asked Gary with a bit more bitterness in his voice that I thought the occasion warranted.