“Whoah, were those shooting stars? Make a wish!” Solace mumbled something under her breath, eyes fluttering closed.
They weren’t stars, they were—
“Satellites,” I whispered, barely louder than the frogs. “Like you and I.” Sometimes I wish we’d just collide, but…
My gaze found hers, bright beneath the moon. “Sharing the sky with you is worth more than a single, blazing second.”
5
Drunk Secrets
Solace
Bridget turned the music down as we turned onto Ransom’s street. “You’re being weirdly quiet.”
“I’m not,” I lied, staring out the window.
“You’ve checked your reflection in the mirror six times.”
“I have not.”
“You absolutely have.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t deny it, because I had checked my reflection—eight times actually. Twice while she was pumping gas. The neighborhood was already lit up ahead of us. String lights looped from the trees in Jude’s front yard, music spilling into the street in warm, pulsing waves. Cars lined both sides of the road and someone whooped loud enough that it echoed.
“He throwsoneparty and suddenly he’s Gatsby,” Bridget muttered, bangles chiming with each arm movement.
My face screwed up. I hadn’t seen him since that night outside my bedroom window. We texted, obviously, but mostly it had been jokes and videos. Sometimes articles about space debris and my orchestral arrangements. He’d sent me a video of a rocket test; I’d sent him a clip of a string quartet playing under a meteor shower. Only to shut my phone off for three days afterwards, hoping hedidn’t think too hard about the fact that it had been titled "Lover’s Orbit."
Seeing him in person was reentry, and my dinner threatened to make a reappearance as Bridget slowed the car.
“You’re nervous.”
“I’m not nervous.” I pressed my lips together.I was nervous.It had been fourteen months, eight days, five hours, three minutes and seventeen seconds since I’d last seen Jude Ransom. If you didn’t count the brief afternoon of bowling at Christmas break where we’d met up with our extended friend group.
That summer night came back in flashes. The camping chair dragged through the gravel. The warm air. The satellites blinking across the dark.Sharing the sky with you is worth more than one blazing second.It may have well been tattooed across my eyeballs considering how often I’d thought of him. Of that line. Of our terrible fate. Of the fact that I was helplessly crushing on my best friend with absolutely no solution in sight.
Inside, the house was somehow busier than it looked from the street. Jude lived in a modestly sized mid-century modern home with his mom and grandma after his grandfather passed away. Ever since Rose started her own design business, they’d been fixing the place up. The result was expensive and chic. Rose was talented, and I had no dignity where their floor-to-ceiling glass walls were concerned. Even back when it still had orange shag carpet, I could’ve been convinced to move in.
The living room was packed with bodies, and strobe lights pulsed overhead throwing colors against every clean and once sterile surface. His grandma was going tokill him, that was for sure. Ji-yoo was serious about her white rugs and priceless family heirlooms.
“Want to grab a drink first?” Bridget blew a kiss to Luca as she tugged my elbow toward the kitchen, where our classmates were stumbling out with red Solo cups in hand.
“No, that’s okay. I’m not thirsty.”
She rolled her eyes. “Maybe not for shitty beer.” Bumping her hip against mine, she whisper-yelled, “Thirsty for Ransom, though!”
“Bridget!” Heat flooded my entire body as a shadow fell over us, then a very solid chest pressed lightly against my back. Bridget’s eyes went wide, then she smiled.
“Ransom what?”
I froze.
The voice was low, familiar, and right against my ear. Bridget’s grin went feral as my stomach sank. Slowly, I turned my head.
Jude stood directly behind me—taller than I remembered, and somehow broader too. His T-shirt stretched across his shoulders, and he smelled faintly of clean soap and summer air.
My face burned hotter.
