Page 244 of Notes of Attraction

Cal looks at me. He is doing the thing where he is trying very hard not to laugh and is not entirely succeeding. His hand finds mine on the center console, and he squeezes once.

I squeeze back.

Outside the window, LA is turning into freeway, and the freeway is turning into desert and somewhere ahead of us is the best week of my life and I haven’t even got there yet.

“For the record,” Sydney says from the back, “I am not interested in any struggling artists. I am going for the scenery, the sunshine, and the quality time with my best friends.” A pause. “And possibly the stargazing.”

Cal’s thumb traces a small circle on the back of my hand as we make our way to the house.

* * *

The bonfire was Sydney’s idea, which means it was inevitable from the moment she saw the fire pit in the yard and said ‘oh we are absolutely doing that’ with the energy of someone who had already decided and was simply informing the rest of us.

That was two hours ago.

Now it’s nearly ten, the fire is going, and the sky is incredible. And we are all arranged around the fire in various states of horizontal. Cal is on the old blanket we found in the hall cabinet with his back against a log and me between his knees, his chin occasionally dropping to the top of my head. Harrison is on the other side of the fire on his phone. Eli is writing in his notebook, occasionally looking up at the fire. Luca is on the opposite side with a beer, his legs stretched out, and his face tipped up at the sky.

Sydney is next to Gianna, the furthest possible spot from Luca but also the one in his eyeline. The two of them keep looking up at each other, then frowning and looking away. I can’t decide if they need to fight or fuck.

It’s warm. Not hot—the desert cools fast when the sun goes—but the fire fills in the gap and Cal is warm behind me. Everything smells like woodsmoke and dry earth, and I am about as content as I have ever been in my life.

Sydney tips her head back to see what Luca’s looking at, apparently forgets she isn’t speaking to him, and starts narrating the sky.

“That’s Vega.” She points without checking. “The bright one’s Jupiter. That’s a satellite — don’t get excited, it’s basically a moving trash can.” Her finger keeps traveling. “And that smudge, if your eyes adjust, is the Milky Way, which none of you have ever actually seen, because you all live under a giant lamp.”

“How do you know all that?” Eli asks, pen stopped over his notebook.

“She’s an astronomy major,” Luca says.

Sydney’s finger stops mid-sky.

“I am,” she confirms to Eli. “And this is one of the best skies in the country. People book years out to get time on the telescopes here. There’s an observatory about forty minutes from here which I’d kill to—” Something crosses her face. Quick. There and gone, like the satellite. Then she’s bright again, reaching for the marshmallow bag. “Anyway. The point is, you’re all extremely lucky I’m here to explain the universe to you.”

Luca is still watching her.

Harrison looks up from his phone.

“What was that melody you were doing earlier? Whistle it.”