Accepting the Deal by Jessica Sorensen

Author:Jessica Sorensen [Sorensen, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessica Sorensen

6

Zhara

Somehow, over the course of one day, I've become an insomniac. Usually, I get to bed at a decent hour. Not to get my beauty rest, but because getting eight hours of sleep is what good girls do. At least, that's what my mom told me once when I had stayed up until two o'clock in the morning, just to see what it was like to stay up late on a school night.

“Zhara, you need to get to bed,” she said when she caught me lounging in the living room, watching a late-night talk show. She blinked at the television screen, where a woman in her early twenties was yelling at her mom for sleeping with her husband. “What on earth are you watching?”

I shrugged, sitting up and stretching my arms above my head. “I don’t know, but it’s actually pretty entertaining.”

“No, it’s not. It’s trash.” She shook her head, scooped up the remote, and clicked off the television. “You have tests in the morning. You should’ve been in bed over four hours ago.” She glanced at the clock. “Dammit, Zhara, you’re barely going to get four hours of sleep now.”

“I’ll be fine,” I assured her, lowering my feet to the floor. “And I only have one test, and it’s in English.” I stood up, yawning. “I could ace English in my sleep.”

“You say that now, but we’ll see tomorrow.” She pointed to the stairway. “Now get to bed. And please, don’t ever stay up this late again. You’re lucky Alexis didn’t see you. I finally got her back on a normal sleeping schedule. If she sees you up this late, she’ll think it’s okay to go back to her old ways.” She shook her head as I trudged by her. “You’re supposed to be setting an example for your brothers and sisters.”

“I just stayed up late,” I muttered. “It’s not like I was out partying and getting drunk.”

“No, but breaking curfew can be the starting point to getting into more trouble. Trust me; I’ve been through this with Loki and Jessamine.” She followed me toward the stairs, her tone softening. “I know you think I’m being hard on you, but I only do it because you’ve always been such a good girl, and I don’t want you getting on the wrong track.”

I remember wondering how on earth she thought staying up late to watch trashy television could lead to me ending up on the wrong track? It was just a few less hours of sleep, for crying out loud. And it’s not like I was out doing drugs or participating in teenage mischief. Still, her disapproval made me never stay up late ever again. Until tonight.

Tonight, I’m awake well into the late hours of the night. Or the early hours of the morning, depending on how you look at it. But I can’t sleep. Not when I’m supposed to meet Benton in about twelve hours to find out what sort of favor he wants from me. I can’t even wrap my mind around what it could possibly be, and honestly, I'm sort of worried.

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