"You gotta," Lyra said, making her hands disappear deep into the sleeves of the coat so Rosario couldn't give it back. "What'm I supposda do, live it up large and watch you struggle? Nah girl. Listen, y'know that money gonna bleed away fast once rent goes up, y'know there's gonna be little emergencies, Amparo's gonna know someone else needs help, and your mom— maybe this means she gets a few days off her feet, off that ankle. Maybe we can do something nice, make it up to Chicky for missing Halloween. And maybe you can drop a late shift for a bit and do some homework and go to bed not exhausted for once," she said, eyebrows up. It hadn't escaped her notice, the toll that things were taking on Rosario.
"Sis," she said, her hands re-emerging from the sleeve so she could reach out and poke Rosario in the middle of her tired forehead. It killed her how hard things were for Rosario. It killed her that she'd wound up with the good dad, the good family, and Rosario's wound up with... Olympus. It was bullshit, unfair and unbalance and money didn't do enough to change it but it was money, it sure as shit did something. "If I can buy you a extra hours sleep a night it’s worth it, aint it? I’d give you a million so you never had to worry again, but, I don’t got a million. Besides…” she added, with a big, fluffy, turquoise shrug. “Ain’t like this is come from hours’n’hours of sweat and work and customers— I ain’t earn shit— like a trust fund. A trust fund from the universe. So take it. And take the vodka. And tell me a story. Aight?"