“Oh!”
Marcus sits up, gaze following mine all the way to us.
Me and Jason.
Past Me and Past Jason, walking hand in hand into the carnival. We are the quintessential couple. So happy and so in love that we’re even swinging our hands between us.
“What we’ve been waiting for,” Marcus says, his voice a whisper.
“Yeah,” I say, but my voice is dry, and I have to clench my handsinto fists to stop myself from grabbing the front of Marcus’s shirt, making him stay exactly where he is. Pressing my lips to his.
The absence of Marcus’s body weight feels like an insurmountable loss.
His voice is hoarse as he stands then offers me his hand. “What are we doing, then?”
I take his hand so he can pull me up, and we silently hurry after them.
Twenty-Two
“Yeah, right!” Past Jason is saying. “You were turning green by the end of that ride.”
Past Zadie laughs. “No, that was you, Mr.I’m Not Scared of Anything Riddick,” she says. “You were squeezing my hand so tight, I think a couple of my bones are broken.”
Now, they’re both laughing.
We’re so close we’re almost right on top of them, but it still feels like they are an entire world away from us.
“In less than a year, I’ve discovered three different types of your kryptonite,” Other Zadie says smugly.
“Three?” Jason is incredulous. “I can’t even think of one!”
Zadie untangles her fingers from his to count them off. “Arcade games slash dancing.”
“Okay, true,” Jason concedes. “That wasn’t my best performance.”
“Heights,” I whisper dully at the same time as Other Zadie says it to Jason.
“Heights?”Jason sounds flummoxed, and for a second it’s like he’s answering me. Talking back to me, as if we can hear each other. It is a jarring feeling, like speaking to a dead person. “I’m scared of the Big Dipper, not heights. I’m completely fine with heights.”
“Sure, Jason,” Zadie says.
Beside me, Marcus is dead quiet.
“Okay, what’s the third? You said three?” Jason asks.
Zadie stops walking, and so the three of us do too.
“And me,” Zadie says with more certainty than she feels. “I’m your kryptonite.”
Jason leans down with a smile that takes up his whole face, kisses her on the nose.
“That one,” he whispers, “I won’t deny.”
They make out right there in the middle of the carnival, and for one or two seconds, everyone has to go around them. The kiss is passionate for how public it is, and I feel my heart very literally split in two. How can anyone deny that we were anything but unstoppable together? On the other hand, I feel like Marcus and I shouldn’t be here. That we should be somewhere else.
Until someone with the type of booming voice that only a sports coach possesses yells, “Mr.Jason Riddick!”
I groan and cover my eyes. “Oh God, here we go. I can’t even watch this.”
