This long speech was followed by a long silence, in which Stella read Penelope's mind as she thought, 'And to be honest, it's kind of fun knowing what people are thinking about. Isn't it Stella?'
Stella strongly disagreed. It hadn't been fun even one time whenever she had read others' minds ever since she discovered her powers. It either led to Sharp getting very angry with her for doing it, or Simon reprimanding her for not controlling her mind better, or June looking at her with a disappointed and sad expression. The only one who didn't actively oppose having his mind read was Allen, and Stella could see an aversion even in his mind.
He didn't like anyone inside his head. Who would?
The silence was broken by June just as it was starting to get uncomfortable. "Are you sure you're okay Den?" she asked, peering closely into Sharp's face who shooed her away. "Yes yes. I'm perfectly fine. And sure about that." he said, and continued as he started to get up, "Where are aunt and uncle? I should probably greet them before I go."
"You're going somewhere?" This came from June, and everyone except Penelope's expression was asking the same question as they looked at Den. He nodded, got up and stretched, "Yeah. I should probably go see mother and father once. I need to look over some books in the library also."
Stella frowned, trying to decipher the meaning of this sentence that everyone else seemed to understand perfectly. June's next words as she said, "You're going back to your house?" made much more sense. Sharp nodded in response and went to the window to look out. The sun had almost set, the perfect time for all the vampires to go out.
Everyone in the room followed his movements with their eyes as he smoothed out his shirt, ran his fingers through his hair and gave himself one last look in the mirror. Once at the door of the room, he turned around and said, "Come on. Let's go."
The words themselves were not surprising, but what was surprising were the person they were addressed to. Stella blinked from her position in Allen's lap as she pointed to herself. "Me?" she asked. "Obviously." Sharp replied with a roll of his eyes. Allen's arms wrapped closely around her as he said, "Can't she just stay here? With us?"
Den blinked as June also chimed in. "Yeah. Stella, please stay. I even got a room ready for you." she said. Stella,who had no idea how she had suddenly been dragged in the conversation, looked from an expectant June to a thoughtful Sharp, wondering what should she do, and even if she had a choice.
Den had been a little taken aback by Allen's and June's words. McCarteny could very easily stay here. June had promised to take care of her, and he trusted her to keep McCarteny safe. On top of that, Allen and Simon, and now looked like Penelope, wouldn't let any harm come to her.
Den perfectly understood all this, but what had surprised him was why hadn't he thought of this? Why had he asked McCarteny to come with him, even though she had no business being at his house and every business being at June's.