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Star wasn’t used to asserting any kind of boundaries. It was always easier to keep the peace.
Safer.
She was still feeling her way around the Lost Boys, picking up on the unspoken rules and expectations now that she had moved into their home.
Star had arguably already moved in, but it took her turning to make it official in her mind.
David was the leader. His word was always the last.
But the other boys had no qualms voicing their dissent or speaking up when they had wants, needs.
This confused Star at first. She expected David to automatically shut them down.
Instead, he heard them.
Not always magnanimously, mind. He would argue back. He would laugh in their faces. He would give them a glare that said they were being idiots. Someone might storm off. They’d tread the same water for hours. They’d each refuse to cede an inch.
Yet within the mess, she never really saw it as a battle.
It certainly wasn’t a democracy, and she wasn’t naive enough to ever think that. But the boys weren’t afraid to speak. And as much as David could snarl and bark at his brothers, he still heard them.
They mattered.
Star could only count on one hand the times when there was no room for discussion. For some decisions, declarations, David would give clipped, nonresponses to make clear it was final.
One of those unspoken things would happen. The boys would all shut up, tuned into the same frequency, and share looks of dismay.
Those looks were never directed at David.
It was something Star apparently wasn’t privy to the mechanisms of. She had a feeling she wouldn’t get a straight answer if she asked about it, so she never did.
—----
As the boys got themselves primped and ready to go out one night, Star wrestled with herself.
She knew she would have a good time with the boys. They had been taking her out with them every night and it was a given Star would climb on the back of David’s bike at this point. They would then often do something as a family. Play a gig, stroll the boardwalk, drink on the beach. But there was plenty of space for the vampires to come and go and find their own fun.
As much as they loved each other, the boys couldn’t always be attached at the hips without some inevitable, unintended bloodshed.
It wasn’t even that Star didn’t want to spend time with them. She maybe just wanted to see what would happen if she asked not to. She hadn’t done that before. Was she allowed, too?
“Hey, Star? Kindly tell Marko to fuck off about candy apples already?” David asked as he was the first to join her in the main living area. He flopped onto the couch beside her, boots going up on the table in one motion.
“The man knows what he wants,” she grinned and gave him a light shove at the shoulder.
David leaned with it exaggeratedly and then gave her a bit of a push back. He was playful tonight.
“I think I’m gonna stay home,” she said before she could overthink it. Well, overthink it even more.
He laughed.
Star didn’t want to acknowledge the flicker of shame in her chest. She suddenly found her nails fascinating.
“Come on, what are you gonna do here all alone?” he asked and nudged her again. “You’ll be bored stiff.”
“Does it matter?” Star looked up at him through her lashes.
“We’re a much better time,” he pointed out, coaxing.
Star nearly gave in. She knew they were.
There wasn’t a whole lot in terms of entertainment to be had in the Ironworks, despite the efforts the boys had put in to make it a home. It was still an abandoned factory at the end of the day and the cement and metal seemed colder without the boys’ presence.
Instead of caving, she deflected with another question, “So?”
She was aiming for nonchalant and hoped she didn’t come across as weirdly anxious as she felt.
David looked at her. It wasn’t unkind, which she had partly been bracing for, but she couldn’t quite place it. Then he nodded.
“Okay. See you later, Starshine. Let’s go, boys!” he called to round them up.
Dwayne scampered out first, the scarf through his belt loops trailing behind him. Paul and Marko were soon to follow, bickering about caramel versus candy coated apples. Star chuckled at David’s dramatic roll of the eyes.
They collectively headed into the elevator. When it was clear she wasn’t joining, none of them questioned her.
“Later, Star!” she heard someone shout as the elevator doors closed.
She smiled.
To be honest, Star was bored at home all alone. But she felt a lingering warmth centered in her chest. It was there when she watched a rerun of Happy Days she’d seen four times. When she flipped through one of the boys’ motorcycle magazines. When she fiddled with a skirt that she still needed to buy more fabric for to finish.
It was all just enough to distract from the hunger pangs she couldn’t get rid of. That was a win in itself.
When the boys came home, Star found herself bracing again.
She plastered on a smile from where she laid on the couch with a book and peered at them over the pages.
The guys were rather boisterous and bouncing off each other. They didn’t even seem to notice her.
The warmth cooled.
Then Paul came up behind the couch with a bright grin and handed her a Snickers.
“David said you like this one,” he said and lingered for approval. David gave him a swift punch in the arm. “Ow, what?” Paul complained and missed when trying to hit him back.
“Thank you,” Star said with a real smile.
Warmth renewed.
Marko picked up her legs and set them back down on his lap, claiming the other end of the couch. Dwayne sat cross legged on the floor by the coffee table with a new model car kit. David and Paul were chasing each other, roughhousing in a tit-for-tat way.
Nothing had changed.