AllFreeNovel
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Once we’re both up the ladder and on the sooty, tacky roof, we look around. Low buildings rise around us, but farther beyond, I can see the string of buildings downtown and the glittering lights on the bridges. The cars on the highway across the river look like tiny jewels.
“Nice,” I whisper. Even nicer: When I look down, I spy a car chugging at the curb. Sienna stumbles down the steps and lurches for the door. “You Sienna?” I hear the driver say. The door slams, and the car pulls away. I let out a breath I didn’t quite realize I was holding.
Alexis leads me across the roof to two plastic chairs and a folded flannel blanket. “Come under this with me, babe. Sun’s gone down, so it’s chilly.”
Babe.Her signals are all over the map. She drapes the blanket over our legs and pulls something out of a shoulder bag. A shiny wine label glints in the moonlight. “Screw top, luckily,” she murmurs, twisting off the cap. An acidic scent fills my nostrils. My mouth waters.
Traffic swishes peacefully. Alexis’s body presses into mine, and I feel the swell of her rib cage as she breathes. I want to snuggle with her, but I still can’t quite read the situation—how much touching is too much? What is friendly, and what’s romantic? I need to play this just right. As impatient as I am for things to move quickly, I have to bide my time.
“So are you feeling sad?” Alexis asks after we’ve both drunk from the wine bottle.
“Sad? No. Why do you ask?”
“You were at a funeral. Usually, afterI’mat a funeral, I’m a little sad.”
“Oh.” I scrunch the scratchy blanket in my hands. My leg is falling asleep from the weight of Alexis’s body, but I don’t dare move. “I feel bad for Sienna, sure. She’s a good friend. I was with her the night that guy was killed, actually.” Although, actually, I wasn’t with Sienna thewholenight. I’d found her about twenty minutes after she found out about Greg. She was balled up in a corner, practically catatonic.
“Did you know him?” Alexis asks.
I turn my head away, staring at a smokestack on a nearby roof. “Sort of,” I lie.
“He wrote some sexy e-mails to someone. Have you read them?”
“I’m not really into hack gossip.” I don’t want to talk about this anymore, so I tilt my head back. “Look at that red light up there. Think it’s a spaceship?”
Alexis squints. “No, silly. That’s Mars.”
“Really?” I squint hard. “Nah. It’s so bright.”
Alexis swallows more wine. “The planets are always bright. And that’s definitely Mars because of its reddish tinge.” She gives me a cocky smile. “You’re looking at the president of her astronomy club in high school, so I know for sure.”
“You were an astronomy nerd?” I nudge her. “You’re making that up.”
“I was a nerd through and through.” Alexis laughs. “I took all AP classes, on the Quiz Bowl team, in Model UN...”
I’m about to ask what Model UN is—my school didn’t have fancy clubs. But that would make me look stupid. “Well, good for you.”
“Were you a nerd, too?” Alexis asks.
I’m about to tell her yes, but maybe it’s not the right play tonight. “Actually, I was a troublemaker,” I admit. “I can’t even believe I got into Aldrich.”
“Your grades weren’t good?”
“No, they were good. Great, actually. But, I mean, it’sAldrich.”
Alexis frowns. “Aldrich isn’tthatgreat.”
“Of course it is,” I say proudly, my smile crooked. “I mean, it’s gotta mean something that it was hacked along with Harvard and Yale, right?”
“Yeah, but.” Alexis stretches out her legs. “All that stuff that’s come out in the hack—everyone seems so skeevy, you know? Totally amoral. Half the professors are criminals.”
“Well,Istill love it,” I say, feeling something clench in my chest. It’s true. I love Aldrich desperately. I love the things I’ve learned, the taste of the world I’ve received. Maybe that’s because it’s about to be taken away from me.
Alexis chuckles. “Personally, I lovepeople,not old, crumbling institutions run by old, crumbling white dudes.”
I laugh, too. “So, like, you love your boyfriend, then?”
She snorts. “Oh God, no. Not him.” And then she lowers her chin. Her eyelashes flutter. “But I might be into someone else. I’m not sure yet. It’s all really... new.”
