Fortunately for Caitie, Maddie didn’t catch the trace of embarrassment in the girl’s tone. If she had, her ribbing would’ve been turned up several notches. It was funny when people were embarrassed. “You know you must be awesome if you got my approval, Wittle Thiefy,” she said by way of subtle compliment, using the nickname she’d concocted for the girl.
“Oh, that’s so gross.” Maddie shuddered again, this time wiggling her fingers to express just how disgusting rats — especially undead ones — were. “They had zombie rats in the vents on Liberty? Glad I never went there. Bad enough we got live rats ‘round this dang place.” She scoffed when the Stone family was mentioned. “Ugh, can’t I go one day without hearing about that family? Geeze, you’d think they were effing celebrities or something, with the way everybody talks about them.”
She nodded once when Caitie thanked her. “No problem-o. Good to finally have someone to do crap like this with.” And not just because it meant they’d share the blame if they were caught. Maddie didn’t have many — well, any, really — friends around Sing Sing besides her siblings, and they didn’t count.
“Brothers are totally weird,” she agreed. “At least mine don’t like Twilight or Star Wars.”
Maddie laughed at Caitie’s theory about how Bill Clinton was spending the apocalypse. “And holing up in his harem, of course. A harem safehouse.”
“Seriously,” she nodded emphatically. “Like, I’d rather sleep in my own bed alone, than have someone there hogging the covers and drooling all over my pillow.” Maybe she was a little envious at times; how so many people around this place seemed to have more than just immediate family members. They had friends and boyfriends and stuff, too. She’d never admit that it was something she felt deprived of, though. As they’d said, there were far more important things to worry about now. It was Maddie’s turn to laugh at her companion’s description of Leah. “Kinda makes me feel bad for the French guy now. Ouch. Talk about your blue balls.”
Maddie opened the closet door and peered in, shifting herself to the side so that the light could shine in and illuminate the contents. She puffed her cheeks out noisily. Nothing interesting. “Just more paint. And some boring old notebooks and the usual closet crap. Bor-ing.” Carelessly, she pulled out one of the containers of paint to examine it, eyes widening when the lid fell off and bright blue paint spilled onto the floor. “Oopsie.”