By the time breakfast was over and everyone started drifting off, the Gallagher house settled into the usual late-morning lull.
The kitchen was still warm from the stove, still smelled like toast and coffee, but the rush had burned itself out. Fiona was rinsing plates with the tired, automatic focus of someone already thinking three tasks ahead. Carl had wandered off the second he finished eating. Debbie disappeared upstairs with school papers and a face that suggested she was already irritated by whatever waited for her later. The noise in the house didn't stop, but it loosened.
Lip and Mandy went upstairs without much fuss.
He pushed open his bedroom door and dropped onto the bed the second he was inside, not even bothering to take off his jacket. Mandy came in after him, shut the door with her foot, and set her coffee mug on the floor beside the bed before sitting down next to him. Then she stretched out beside him like she had done it often enough not to think about it.
For a while, neither of them said anything.
Up here, the house felt farther away. You could still hear it if you paid attention. Fiona moving around downstairs. A door opening somewhere. Pipes knocking once in the wall. But none of it came up clear enough to matter. The room had caught some sun, and the patch of light near the window made everything look quieter than it really was.
Lip lay on his back and stared at the ceiling.
Mandy turned her head toward the window, watched the light for a second, then looked back at him.
"You planning to stay right there all day?"
Lip didn't move. "I could."
She gave him a look. "That sounds miserable."
"Depends who you ask."
"I'm asking."
He turned his head toward her. "What's wrong with being in my room?"
"Nothing for ten minutes." She shifted onto one elbow. "Whole day's different."
He let that sit for a second.
She wasn't wrong. If he stayed upstairs long enough, Fiona would eventually find him and hand him something to carry, fix, clean, or deal with. And even if she didn't, the room would start to feel smaller by the hour. That was the thing about the Gallagher house. It never really let you be still for too long.
Mandy glanced toward the window again. "It's decent out."
"You care now?"
"No. I care about not rotting."
That got a small smile out of him.
He sat up and rubbed a hand over his face. "Alright."
Her eyebrows lifted. "easier than i thought"
"Don't sound disappointed now."
"I'm just waiting for you to change your mind."
He swung his legs off the bed and reached for his jacket properly. "You talk too much."
"Still getting up, though."
They left a minute later with no plan beyond getting out of the house.
The day had turned out better than it looked earlier. It was still cold, but not the damp, ugly kind that got into your clothes and stayed there. The sun was out enough to make the sidewalks shine in patches, and the whole neighborhood seemed easier for it. A radio was playing somewhere down the block. Somebody was hammering something in a backyard. Two little kids were racing each other along the curb with no jackets zipped and no adult stopping them.
Mandy shoved her hands into the sleeves of her hoodie as they walked. Lip kept his in his pockets. They didn't pick a direction at first. They just started moving.
That was normal enough around here. People wandered. They cut through streets and alleys, stopped at a fence or a porch or a corner store, then kept going. Half the neighborhood seemed built around having somewhere else to be without ever saying where.
They passed a house with a busted gate hanging crooked off one hinge, then the block where somebody always seemed to be working on the same car no matter what time of day it was. A woman stood on a porch in slippers smoking and watching the street like she owned it. Somebody else yelled from an upstairs window, and nobody bothered yelling back.
After a while Mandy looked around at the people outside and said, "Everybody here knows everybody's business."
Lip glanced over at her. "That's because half the block's known each other since they were kids."
"Still annoying."
He gave one shoulder a shrug. "You get used to it."
"That's what people say about every bad thing."
He laughed under his breath. "You really know how to sell the neighborhood."
"It sells itself."
They kept walking.
When they reached the park, a few guys were already on the basketball court behind the fence. Their voices carried across the pavement every time somebody missed a shot or called a foul that nobody else agreed with. Jackets were thrown in a heap by the bench. The ball hit the concrete in a steady rhythm that seemed to belong there.
Mandy slowed and leaned against the fence. Lip stopped beside her.
For a minute they just watched.
One of the guys on the court drove badly, got blocked, and started complaining before he even landed properly. The rest of them shouted over him. Another grabbed the ball and laughed in his face. It was familiar enough to be almost comforting.
Mandy looked at the court, then at Lip. "You used to play here a lot."
"Sometimes."
"You were good."
Lip kept his eyes on the game. "I was alright."
She made a face. "You always answer like that."
"How?"
"Like nobody cares."
He looked over at her then.
Mandy only shrugged, like it wasn't a big statement, then turned back to the court before he could say much to that.
They stayed there another minute or two, long enough to watch somebody brick a shot badly enough to get laughed off the line, then Mandy pushed away from the fence.
"Come on."
They walked again, slower now.
The conversation came and went the way it always seemed to with her. School. People they knew. Somebody getting caught talking big and not backing it up. Mandy told him about a fight behind the gym the day before, and he laughed when she told him who it was.
"That kid?" he said. "He flinches when teachers raise their voice."
"Exactly."
"What happened?"
"He talked himself up for a week, swung once, missed, and got dropped."
Lip laughed again. "Sounds right."
She smiled into her soda when she said it, and that was enough to keep the mood easy for another few blocks.
They stopped at the corner store for drinks, then came back out and stood on the sidewalk while a bus groaned through the far end of the street. Mandy leaned one shoulder against a signpost and looked off down the block.
After a minute, she asked, "You ever think about leaving?"
Lip twisted the cap off his bottle. "Chicago?"
She nodded.
"Sometimes."
"Where would you go?"
He took a drink and thought about it before answering. "Somewhere quieter."
Mandy made a face at that. "That sounds boring."
"Could be."
"You'd hate boring."
"Maybe for a while."
She looked down the street again. "Still."
He knew what she meant without her needing to say more.
Still better than this some days.
Still farther.
Still not here.
He tipped the bottle once in his hand. "Depends."
She accepted that and moved on, which was one of the things he liked about talking to her. Mandy didn't always poke at a thought until it died. Sometimes she just let it sit there and left it alone.
The afternoon went like that. No plan, no urgency, just one block leading into another until the light started changing and they found themselves heading back without really deciding to.
By the time they turned onto the Gallagher block, the streetlights were flickering on.
The cold had crept back in with the evening. Mandy had both hands stuffed in her sleeves again, shoulders tucked slightly forward. She slowed a little as they came up to the porch.
"You mind if I stay here tonight?"
She said it lightly, but not so lightly that he missed it.
Lip looked at her. "You asking?"
"No, just informing you."
That made him smile a little. He opened the front door and stepped aside. "Then come in."
She went in ahead of him.
The rest of the evening passed in the ordinary Gallagher way. Dinner downstairs, loud enough to feel bigger than it was. Fiona moving through it all with the expression of someone already too tired to care about anyone else's nonsense. Carl talking with his mouth full. Debbie snapping at him once and then giving up. Frank being useless somewhere in the background, which counted as predictable.
Mandy stayed through all of it like it was normal.
Nobody really questioned it. Fiona gave her a plate without comment. Carl threw one dumb remark at her and then moved on to annoying someone else. Debbie barely looked up. It all happened with the same easy rhythm as breakfast, and Lip found himself noticing it again—how naturally Mandy fit into the room, how little anyone treated her like an outsider.
Later, when the kitchen had finally been cleared and the house had split into smaller pockets of noise, they went back upstairs.
Lip switched on the lamp by the dresser, and the room took on that dim yellow glow it always had at night. Mandy stretched across the bed on her stomach, chin on folded arms, while Lip sat against the wall with one knee up and the other leg stretched out in front of him.
The house sounded softer from up here. A TV downstairs. Somebody moving in the hall. A door shutting. Nothing urgent.
They talked in bits.
Not about anything important, not really. School. A teacher Mandy couldn't stand. Some guy who got caught lying so badly everybody would still be talking about it next week. Carl almost setting something on fire last month and Fiona swearing she was done with him before doing exactly what she always did and fixing it anyway.
Eventually the subject drifted back where Mandy always seemed to drag it.
"You skip too much."
Lip looked at her from where he was sitting. "There it is."
"I mean it."
"You always do."
She rolled onto her side to look at him properly. "You're going tomorrow."
He smiled a little. "That so?"
"Yes."
"You deciding that for me now?"
"Someone should."
He let out a quiet laugh. "You sound like a teacher."
"That's rude."
"That's true."
Mandy pointed at him from the bed. "I'm walking with you."
He looked at her hand, then back at her face. She wasn't joking. Not even a little.
For a second he thought about arguing just because that was what Lip usually did with anything that sounded too much like direction. But he was tired, the room was warm, and Mandy looked so sure of herself that it was almost funny.
So instead he said, "Fine."
That caught her off guard.
"Really?"
"Don't ruin it."
A smile slipped out before she could stop it. "Too late."
He shook his head and looked away, still smiling a little himself.
After that, the room went quiet again. Not awkwardly. Just naturally. Mandy stretched back out, a little closer than before, and after a while Lip reached over and switched off the lamp.
Darkness settled in except for the thin light pushing through the curtains from the street outside.
Nothing much happened after that.
Just the house slowly settling. A pipe knocking once. The distant sound of somebody downstairs still awake. Mandy shifting under the blanket until she was settled. Lip letting his eyes close.
The next morning, Mandy woke up first.
That alone felt strange.
She lay still for a second, blinking at the gray light, then turned her head and looked at Lip. He was still asleep on his side, hair a mess, one arm half under the pillow, looking like he had no intention of moving anytime soon.
Mandy reached over and nudged his shoulder.
"Wake up."
He made a low sound and didn't open his eyes.
She nudged him again.
This time one eye opened. "What?"
"Get up."
He squinted at her. "Why?"
"School."
That woke him up more than the second shove had.
He stared at her for a second. "You're serious."
"Yes."
He rolled onto his back and dragged a hand over his face. "You're annoying."
"You agreed."
"That was last night."
"And this is now."
He let out a groan, sat up slowly, and reached for the hoodie hanging over the chair.
That was all the answer she needed.
Mandy smiled, not even trying to hide it this time. "Told you."
He pulled the hoodie on and gave her a tired look. "Don't get smug."
A few minutes later they were outside, walking toward school together.
The neighborhood was waking around them. Front doors opening. Kids with backpacks cutting across sidewalks. Someone yelling from a porch that they forgot their lunch. Cars pulling out one by one, the whole block slipping into weekday motion.
The air still had a bite to it, but the walk kept it from mattering much. Mandy had her hands in her pockets. Lip still looked half asleep, but he was moving, and that seemed good enough.
They didn't talk much on the way.
They didn't need to.
The school was a few blocks ahead, the day just getting started, and for once Lip was actually headed toward it.
Advanced Chapters: cozyread.org