She'd stormed through her apartment after thundering down off the roof, shoved her mom's bottle of red wine in her bag with a shirt and a clean pair of underwear for tomorrow and was already pounding the pavement toward the nearest subway station by the time she messaged Avery. If he'd been busy she didn't have a backup plan— 'cept for bullying (seducing?) him into not being busy anymore— but thank Christ he wasn't. Lyra didn't wanna sleep in her building tonight, knowing Rosario was only a handful of walls away.
Not that she was thinking bout Rosario. Fuck that.
Maybe leaving wasn't bout Rosario at all. Maybe it was about Avery and wanting to be round someone who believed her. Maybe it was bout trying to hold onto someone cuz the person she wanted to hold onto the most thought she was a delusional bitch.
Lyra threw herself down on the subway seat, stormclouds low round her head. Stormclouds of hurt from the things Rosario had said, and for the shit Lyra had said back to her. She wasn't delusional, but she had been a bitch. For two stations, she let herself fume, fume and wallow, and then she tried to beat the whole thing outta her head by telling herself for the next half dozen stops that it didn't matter and she didn't care. She'd survived without her mom for three years in high school, she could survive without Rosario now.
That lasted till she had to change trains, when she stomped from one platform to another, dodging a crowd of boys who were hollering at her, and decided that no, she wasn't gonna lie to herself. She cared too fucking much to turn into the queen of denial.
No, her old plan had to hold. Find Johnny and Elaine, then her dad, and out Archer for whatever the hell he was.
Some parts of this were gonna be easier than others.
But— Lyra thought, banging on Avery's door— at least someone else was on her side.