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“And yourself,” he adds, “and in us.” He tips his head, catching my gaze. “You were still adamant that the world was shit and people sucked.”
Sounds like me.I ease. “You don’t think the world is shit?”
“The world can be shit.” He sits with me, his arms hanging on his knees. “But living in it can also be amazing. Like ate the best ham hoagie of your lifeamazing, danced your heart out at 3 a.m.amazing, kissed an alien and shot to the moonamazing.”
I glance at his lips, butterflies swarming me. “You’ve communed with the extraterrestrial?”
“Just one.” He’s looking at me. “And she’s the prettiest alien I’ve ever seen.”
“Wannabealien,” I correct.
“Sad alien,” he amends, his tone flirty. I bite the corner of my lip, smiling more, especially as he sweeps my features. He nods to me. “I think you’ve crashed on myplanet this time.”
He crashed on my planet the first time then.I picture Donnelly orbiting my universe and landing at my feet. It excites me as much as this inversed reality where I’ve fallen at his. “Uh-huh,” I say, breathless.
“Welcome to Earth, space babe.”
“It’s peculiar here,” I sing-song. “But I already like one of its inhabitants.” I’m looking right at him. “I just wish…”I could remember you.
The pressure to remember has amassed since seeing my family. I’ve wanted to remember to comfort them and ease their worries, but now, more than ever, I crave to uncork these memories of Donnelly. Not just for him, but forme.
I pick at my bitten thumbnail, and more cowardly, I stand up and avoid his gaze.
Donnelly rises to his feet. He makes no effort to put away his things. He just rests against the wall, giving me some space. “You scared?” he asks.
Yep.“I want to remember, and I don’t know how your Luna fared, but I’m not always that successful at things I put my brain power to. I just seem to always fail in the end.” I shrug. “I could be considered Luna the Failure.”
“Failures are those who don’t even try. You always try—”
“And face-plant.”
“And pick yourself back up. Sounds more like Luna the Fighter to me.” He’s such an encouraging human, and he’s right—he already knows I’m gonna try to remember, even if I’m frightened of the worse outcome.
I give him a once-over. “You’re not mad I went through your stuff?”
“Whatever helps you,” he says honestly, then motions to the bed. “You check the real hiding spot?”
“Under your mattress?”
He grins. “Not under, no.” He lets me wander over to the bed, and only one place really seems likely.
I belly-flop on the mattress to reach his bed pillow, and I roll over on my butt. “Am I getting hotter?” I squeeze the fluff of the pillow.
“Girl, you’re roasting.”
While he comes closer, I dig inside the pillowcase. “Careful of me,” I warn. “I could burn you. I am hotter than hot.”
“No lie,” he smirks. “I’d burn up from you.”
Flush bathes my cheeks. Now he really is scalding me inside-out, but I manage to scoop out the contents tucked in the pillowcase.
A small roll of cash tied with a rubber band.
A pack of cigarettes.
“Why do you keep these here?” I ask.
“Just habit.” He watches me scooch to the edge of the bed. My bare knees knock into his legs, and a ripple of sensitivity shoots through me, then goosebumps pimple my skin. Donnelly stays standing above me as he says, “My parents would go through my room and try to sell my things to buy drugs. Most everything I had I bought myself with money I made working.”
