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“That’s all that’s left?”
“Yeah.” I pause. “If you wanna read your stories, that’s where they exist. You didn’t get rid of ‘em completely. They’re not online or in your computer, only printed.”
Her face pinches, as though examining the puzzle of her life. With my arm still around her, she touches my hand that’s hanging near her bicep. She traces a vein with her thumb, the soft touch flooding my lungs.
“People were shitty,” she says quietly. “Are shitty, I’m guessing. They’re calling me what…a freak?” She frowns. “Luna the Tentacle Smut Lover?”
“That’s what I call myself.”
She smiles over at me. “You love tentacle smut?”
I suck on my cigarette, nodding. Blowing smoke at the ceiling, I say, “It’s a favorite. I love yours.”
Flush creeps up her neck, but she’s interlacing her fingers with mine and turning more towards me on the bed. “I can’t believe she let you read our smut.” Her smile widens. “I kinda love her for it.”
“Ditto.” I’m drawn into her emerging effervescence. Big word, effervescence, I know. It’d shock the pants off my dad, but I do read.
Luna rolls onto her knees, sitting more in front of me. I spread my legs open so she’s a bit closer, and after she passes the Four Loko to me, I say, “You’ve been crushed about the leaked fics.” I explain her absence at college, holing up in the penthouse, and avoiding the public.
“This is all recent?” she asks again.
“Yeah.” I sweep her reaction. “You’re not torn up about it?”
“I mean, it sucks, but what doesn’t?” She shrugs. “Maybe Original Luna was beat down so much that this was the final straw.” She watches me swig the drink, cigarette in the same hand. “And being told a horror story isn’t quite the same as living it.”
“Yeah, I get that.”
“What if I can help her?” Luna says, perking up. “What if some good can come out of my memory loss? If she couldn’t face the world after what happened, maybe I can.” She adds, “This is my chance to get over the internet trolls and go to college fully this time.”
Pride is a sappy emotion, and I’m bathing in it right now. “I think you would’ve been proud of yourself, Luna Hale.”
Her smile only grows, then she stares at our clasped hands and her lips soften. “I’m scared I’ll never be Original Luna again, but I can try to be a Better Luna in the meantime.”
I’m keeping hope she’ll remember the past. It hasn’t been that long that she’s forgotten. “I have to talk more to security, but if you do go back to college, no one can know you’ve lost your memories.”
“I’ve heard,” she nods. “They said if my medical records leak and anyone outside of my family, doctors, and security find out I have amnesia, it’ll put me at risk.”
“No one wants you to get taken advantage of is all, and there are some slimy fuckers out there.”
“Who’d try to manipulate me,” she mutters, understanding. “It’d be a good villain arc.”
“God, I hate villains.”
She sits cross-legged now and lets go of my hand to reach for the Four Loko. “Even if they make the story more interesting?”
“I just don’t want ‘em to surround me—or anyone I care about.”
Luna rattles the can. Empty. Then she eyes me up and down a little more tentatively. “Can you be my bodyguard?”
The question comes so far out of left field that I do my best to recover with another drag of my cigarette. Reclaiming the can, I snuff the little nub on the aluminum rim. “I don’t think I can.”
“It was just an idea I had. I’d feel bad taking you from Beckett anyway.”
“I’m not on his detail. Haven’t been for years.”
Her lips part. “Really?”
I see the time on her phone. It’s late. We’ve been talking for hours. Exhaustion is trying to maul me into the covers, and my body still aches from being chained on the metal bench in jail. “I’ll tell you about it another night.”
“Wait, but who…?”
“I’ve been Xander’s bodyguard.”
“Oh.” She stares far away.
“I’ve promised your brother I’d stay with him—and I’ve been shit at keeping promises that matter to your family. I wanna make sure I don’t break this one. I’m trying to be a Better Donnelly.”
Her lip quirks in a slight smile. “Cheers to being better among our respective species.” She lifts a finger toward me, and I press my fingertip to hers like we’re in E.T.
“Is this where I get powers?” I ask her. “Or are you gonna abduct me?”
“Abduction, obviously.”
We’re laughing, and I tell her, “I’m ready. Take me to your planet.”
More softly, she says, “I forgot the way.” It tunnels through me, and we gaze into one another, searching. Quieter, she whispers, “I’m lost with no map.”
“You’ll find your way back,” I reassure. She will. I could light another cigarette. I could go pop open an energy drink. Fuck sleep, right? Except she’s battling a yawn, and I know it’s time to go.
