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Just to talk.Did he really call just because he wanted to talk to me? Smiling to myself, I end the call and sit on the kitchen floor, dangling one of Sebastian’s toys in front of him as I wait for Jack to call.
Thirty seconds pass. And then a minute. Just as I’m about to call him again, my phone rings.
“Hello?” I say.
“Did you hang up on me?”
“You said you wanted to call me. I didn’t want to steal your thunder.”
“I didn’t know you’d hung up. Took me a while to figure out I was talking to no one.”
It’s nearly one in the morning. I should be exhausted after getting hardly any sleep last night, but so much has happened in the last few hours that my brain is buzzing. Whenever something big or exciting or surprising happens, it’s as if my brain says,Sleep? Never heard of it.As a kid, when I was too worked up to sleep, my mom used to tell me stories. She’d lie in bed beside me and tell me to close my eyes. The stories always began the same way: a giant bubble appears in my room and scoops me up, softly carrying me to beautiful places all around the world.
Jack’s voice in my ear feels just like that. It’s as if I’m in a bubble, where nothing and no one can bother me. I can stretch out on this kitchen floor and no one will think I’m weird for lying on the floor instead of sitting in a chair. It’s so late that I don’t have to think about anything but whatever Jack wants to talk about.
I roll onto my back and stare up at the ceiling, then press the phone closer to my ear. “What were you saying to no one?”
“That’s between me and no one.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Aithníonn ciaróg, ciaróg eile.”
I pull my phone from my ear and find the Post-it he drew me earlier where I tucked it away beneath my phone case. I unfold it, staring at it in the dim light. “When you give me my first tattoo—”
“When?”
“Yes,when. I want flowers with my beetles.”
“This is becoming very elaborate.”
“Elaborate is my middle name.”
“Your middle name is Susan.”
“The point is I want an elaborate tattoo.” I stick the Post-it to my chest and lift one leg in the air. My pajama pants slide down, revealing my depressingly pale skin. Might as well make it beautiful if I’m going to be so ghostly. “On my leg.”
“A leg is a big limb, Raine. You might want to be more specific.”
“Eh, I’ll decide where on the day of.”
Jack sighs, but he doesn’t sayNo, orI don’t think so, orI don’t tattoo anymore. I look at the beetle drawing once more before sticking it in my phone case again.
“Can I ask you something?” Jack says.
“Sure.”
“If I’d have kissed you tonight, would you have kissed me back?”
I laugh a little too loud and cover my mouth with a hand. “You’re not serious.”
Jack doesn’t say anything.
“Jack... I literally asked you to make out with me on the couch.”
“But that was before I told you... what I told you.”
I think of the way Jack looked right before Clara arrived and wishI could reach through the phone and hug him. We didn’t really get to finish our conversation. “Yes, I would’ve kissed you back.”
