The only ones in the world.
The tea I just swallowed rises back up my throat. I shut the door, brew a new mug, and set it down on the bedroom floor as I kneel by Hero.
“Hey.” I place a hand on his shoulder. “Rise and shine.”
He doesn’t wake. I envy him. No nightmares. No walking to the sea. But that’s the way it should be. The way it will be, if I can hold out three more days. One, really, if it takes me two to swim to the dome.
One.
Day.
Left.
Smart of Hero to sleep off the time. I’ll leave him to it. I start to rise.
A hand closes around my ankle.
Hero lets out a pained oof as I fall backward and onto him.
“Serves you right,” I say, rolling off to see his watering eyes.
“Stay.”
“Make me.”
He cocks his head to the side. Then, before I can do a thing, he rolls me over so that I’m flat on my back and he’s leaning over me on locked elbows.
He undoes my towel. My skin puckers from the sudden onslaught of air, and my arms move to cover myself.
He stops me. Unfolds me, carefully, tenderly, reverently, like I’m an origami bird and he’s learning the sequence of how I came to be. I feel every spot his gaze lands, and flush. Celia’s used to impassioned meetings in the dark, like yesterday’s. But today the sky is clear and the sun is up, rays from the window baring us anew.
Light ripples over Hero’s shoulders as he leans in.
He presses a kiss to the hollow between my collarbones.
He draws the fuse down, from throat to sternum to navel. Past my navel, to a point where his lips linger, and I think he might stop there and come back up for air.
He doesn’t stop.
* * *
The dizziness starts in the morning and worsens by night. Horrible timing. It’s Tabitha’s eighteenth birthday, and I pulled out all the stops to get our party of fourteen into πthons, one of the few clubs that still exist outside of holo. Just coming here will cause our ranks to go up by a tenth of a decimal. But you only turn legal once, and when Tabitha insisted on staying with me by the bar, I told her to forget about it.
In the end, it took recruiting Rach as my designated babysitter to get Tabitha out onto the club floor. “Thanks,” I now say to Rach. We’re sitting at the bar as everyone else dances, the antigrav and fog machine making it appear as if they’re floating on clouds. “I owe you one.”
“My shoes were killing me anyway,” Rach says with a shrug, then asks if I want a detox, or if I’m up for more.
They assume I’m drunk. In reality, it’s been almost a year since I overdid the Allegro shots. Ever since repairing my relationship with Kay, I’ve tried not to worry her. She doesn’t like it when I come home wasted, or stay out too late. Which is why I’ve snuck out tonight.
“Detox sounds good,” I say. Can’t hurt. Might even help. I’ve been feeling shitty all week. Night sweats, cold hands, flailing in yoga—you name it. Now, I rub my fingertips. They tingle, numb. Maybe it’s time I reinstall my biomonitor. Reinstall notifications, that is. As annoying as the alerts are, I’m not trying to cancel my eco-city healthcare plan by deleting the app entirely.
“One detox for her, and one galaxy for me,” Rach says to the bartender while I glance to the club floor to see if Tabitha is having fun. I can’t spot her at first. Buzz is talking to Joelle. Zane, Ursa, Denise, and Logan are competing in some sort of dance-off that’s completely off the beat. Aliona has clambered onto the stage and seized the mic, and Rae is busy seducing one of the DJs. Then there’s Lou and Perry and … Tristan. With Tabitha.
He’s got an arm around her waist. She giggles at something he says.
“She was going to tell you but kept freaking the fuck out,” Rach murmurs into my ear.
“Yeah?” I rub my hands; they’ve become as numb as my fingertips.
“Yeah. So I told her I’d tell you instead. But then I forgot.”
“Of course you did,” I tease. Rach has a terrible memory. The rest of us are convinced they forget something every time they walk through a doorway.
“Yeah, yeah. But you’re not upset, right?” I shake my head and Rach nods in affirmation. “Who needs Tristan when you can get any fish you want in the sea?”
The bartender slides over our drinks and winks at me. I smile, then glance back to Tabitha and Tristan.
Tristan might look like he’s all brawn and no brains, but he’s actually really passionate about nutrient synthesis. And Tabitha is super into coding virtual culinary experiences. They’ll be a perfect pair. Plus, I was the one who broke up with Tristan amicably . I shouldn’t be upset. I’m not, I tell myself, deciding to order a galaxy as well. Rach grins and raises their matching drink once mine comes. “To graduating.”