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I slid my phone in my pocket. “Fine. But you said you wanted to scream, so go for it.”
Lark stared at me. “The screaming was more metaphorical.”
A line had formed of other people who wanted to get a picture of themselves on the official top of the mountain.
“Go ahead, do your scream so these nice people can get their pictures,” I said.
Lark looked away and then before I could say anything else, let out an ear-splitting scream. It went on for so long that she used up all her air and was panting as she finished.
A few of the people behind us were bewildered, but Lark just gave me a smile and hopped down to join me.
“Feel better?” I asked.
“Not really, but that was fun,” she said. “And now everyone is staring at me.”
“Who gives a fuck?” I said.
“Not me,” she agreed.
* * *
Since we’d paidand driven all the way up here, we wandered around and found a little shaded area to sit on a raised rock that had a little flat spot like a bench. Lark brushed away the snow and sat down.
“You’re an interesting person, Sydney Sparks,” Lark said.
“So are you, Lark Conroy,” I said, using her full name.
Her stomach growled and I started looking around in my bag for something to eat.
“What the hell do you have in there?” Lark asked as a bunch of things clinked together.
“Lots of stuff,” I said, pulling out the snakebite kit and handing it to her. I knew I had a bag of nuts or a granola bar or something.
I pulled out a few paperbacks and handed those to Lark, along with two small bottles of hot sauce.
“You know they make these great things called ebooks and audiobooks now. You can store them in your phone,” she said.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I have plenty of them,” I said. “I just like having options. Sometimes my brain doesn’t want an ebook.”
I pushed aside a packet of seeds and found what I’d been looking for.
“Here you go,” I said, handing her the granola bar.
“Oh,” she said, handing me back the stuff I’d given her to hold. I tossed it all back in my bag.
“Thanks,” she said, opening it and breaking the bar in half.
“No, I’m fine, you have the whole thing,” I said.
“If you insist,” she said, chomping down on the bar and sighing in relief. I tried not to think about the other types of sighs I’d heard from Lark. In just one night, I had made a whole mental playlist of her noises, and they would start to play in my brain at inopportune times. Like right now.
“So, how was your mountain scream?” I asked.
“Very nice. We should make it into a thing. I feel like there’s a way to monetize this and sell it to rich people,” she said.
“I mean, they have laughter yoga, so mountain screaming doesn’t seem that far off,” I said.
“Good point. I’ll work on it.”
