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He angles away from me once more, leaning back against the building. Tipping his head back, he gazes up at the sky. “Right now…right now our friends need us.”
Sucking in my cheeks, I nod, and resume the same position. “Yeah.”
The world blurs, my jaw clenched to shit—so tight, my teeth protest.
“Mase…”
I sniff. “Yeah?”
“Do you…do you need Shawn?”
My eyes fall shut.
I need you.
Giving my head a little shake, I say, “N-no. I’ll be fine. It’s just…hard.”
That’s a fucking understatement.
While neither of us outright look at each other now, there’s this sort of tangible awareness in the air, telling me he’s just as attuned to me as I am to him.
Blinking up at the sky, I brace myself for when he walks away. Knowing it’s coming any moment now. I can feel it—the end of whatever this is. A lapse. A truce…a momentary one, that is.
“Right now our friends need us.”
Tonight’s not about us.
He wouldn’t even be here otherwise…
“‘Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast.’” His whispered words seem to carry on the winter wind gently blowing through.
I frown. “What was that?”
“It’s from a poem called ‘Desert Places.’ Robert Frost.” He swallows with an audible click. “Been stuck in my head for weeks now, since we analyzed it for class. Can’t shake it.”
I blink up at the sky. “What’s it about?”
Class? He’s taking a poetry class?
“Loneliness, mostly,” he says, before I can give voice to my confusion. “A sort of…reflection on just how vast the universe is, and what it means for our place within it. Making peace with the endlessness of it all…putting things into perspective.” He pauses, before reciting softly, “‘They cannot scare me with their empty spaces. Between stars, on stars where no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer home, to scare myself with my own desert places.’”
“Desert places…” I process that, thinking of those once locked rooms inside me…
The rot that seems to fester throughout.
The void I can’t seem to ever fill. One that’s been there since the day my dad left me…
“Your dad lied to you,” he says suddenly.
I tense, caught off-guard by the unexpected statement, and the fact I was just thinking about the man.
Frowning, I turn my head toward him. “What?”
Jeremy’s still gazing up at the sky, his eyes glittering. “Maybe not intentionally. He probably didn’t know. It’s apparently a common misconception. Still…he never should’ve told a kid that.”
“What are you…” My mouth dries, stealing the rest of my question.
His face tightens. “You told me the stars were dead. Remember?”
