No Shelter Left novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: What It Costs

Aisling started a list in the back of her notebook.

She wrote it at the folding table in the laundromat at ten at night, while the last dryer turned.

At the top she wrote the number she had started with: 365.

Under it she wrote what she knew.

Walked out of the house. +1.

Open mic, a stranger tipped her a hundred dollars. +10.

Kaitlyn's video. -30.

Lobby livestream, the bridge. -40.

She put down her pen and looked at the page.

Every gain was a thing she had kept or a thing someone gave her freely.

Every loss was a thing taken from her, and each one had been bigger than the last.

She had resented every one of them while it happened.

She wanted to know whether that was the rule, or only a coincidence.

At ten-thirty her phone rang. It was her mother.

"Aisling." Marianne sounded tired. "I won't ask about the song. I just need one thing, and it's small."

"What is it?"

"Kaitlyn wants the chord chart for the bridge, so she can practice on her own. She says she lost it. Just email it to me, and I'll give it to her."

Aisling closed her eyes.

She could say no. She had said no to Colby, and the number had gone up.

But her mother's voice was thin, and she was tired, and for a moment Aisling wanted so badly for someone in that house to be pleased with her.

"Fine," she said. "I'll send it tonight."

She hated herself a little as she attached the file.

She hit send at 10:41.

The owner of the laundromat, who had been mopping near the soap machines, set down his mop and looked over.

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