Syreni might not have had many feelings about the proposed confrontation but Sandy was furious. It was worsened when she saw that Syreni had commented on Calvin’s post as well and her panic at being replaced had spiralled out of control. Orla’s words were in the back of her mind, be careful, don’t hurt anyone. But then Cal’s words were louder: you protect your own, you protect your family. You fight for what’s yours. You don’t back down - ever - even if the odds are against you.
She had been waiting in the common area for Syreni to join her and when she did she was less than impressed. She looked like a ghost. Why would Scotty want to spend time with the undead over his family? It didn’t make sense. He’d been gone for nearly a year and now he was back, and they were together again - mostly - but he was choosing to ignore them, choosing to ignore them in favour of spending time with someone who doesn’t know him, doesn’t know what he’d gone though and doesn’t really care about him?
They’d all learned the hard way that no one else could be trusted. That they only had each other. Had he forgotten that or did he just like her better? And if Scotty found someone he liked better, what happened when Cassidy did? Or Tammy? Or Calvin? Alejandro was fitting in here well, and he had Orla and so he didn’t really need them anymore and even though Orla didn’t seem to hate them quite so much anymore she still didn’t like them and Sandy worried that if it came down to it, Alejandro would pick Orla over them.
She narrowed her eyes, resisting the urge to just rip her way into the girl’s head.
“Last chance,” she said, not bothering with pleasantries. Sandy had been shaped by the streets, by fighting and clawing every day just to survive. To protect her people from social services, from the police, from well-meaning adults who wanted to separate them. “Say you’ll leave him alone and you can go off and try harder to make other friends, and stop trying to take friends from other people.”