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“I was not aware humans felt the need to maintain friends.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Willow hosts movie night every Thursday because Thursday is movie night. Regardless of attendance, she will watch a movie. Cael can sometimes be absent from these events for several weeks with only a letter of correspondence apologizing for his inability to be present. Friendship is an agreement that doesn’t erode. It doesn’t need to be maintained. It is a quiet knowledge that people will be there for you if you need them, just as you might return the sentiment in their time of need.”
A laugh explodes out of me. “You’re joking, right?” I peek at my comprehensive pamphlet again and see if I can’t find a clause under the explanation of what is and isn’t a faerie lie that says jokes permit falsehoods.
Like a slap to the face, I discover that sarcasm and jokes still can’t contain lies, so often they are framed within questions.
Well.
Okay then.
Dropping the book closed again, I say, “Every friendship I’ve had before Zahra fell apart on me. I’m only truly convinced I’ve been able to maintain Zahra because we have to see each other every day at work. Literally. If both of us can’t be there, we have to shut down the school.”
“And during the summer?” Pollux asks.
During the summer? Ha. During the summer I hibernate like a bear in winter, storing up my people energy with the ferocity of someone who wants to openly sob at every available opportunity. During the summer, I remind myself how much I love kids and teaching and learning and teaching kids how to learn—because every summer I feel the brunt of dealing with parents and kids and waking up so early and coming home so exhausted that I contemplate quitting at least once a week.
Every summer, I update and create new lesson plans once I’ve crawled out of bed.
Every summer…I don’t reach out to Zahra at all. I think about her almost daily, but I never actually bring myself to reach out.
“During the summer…” I murmur, “…she’ll occasionally drag me out to something somewhere a couple times.” And I’ll talk about my lesson plans and my latest dress project, and she’ll tell me she spent eighteen straight hours doing her makeup after spending fifteen styling a wig. I’ll ask if she’s slept at all in the last forty-eight hours, and she’ll stare at me like insanity has a name, and it is Kassandra.
I love her.
I’m so grateful I have her.
“Would you like to have three more Zahras?” Pollux asks.
I find myself laughing again and looking at him as though insanity has a new name and it’s his. “Dreamboy, I don’t think you understand how unique a Zahra is. Only one was fearfully and wonderfully made.”
“Phone.”
“No.”
He rises, plants a hand on the table, and looms over me.
I swallow and stare up into his red eyes.
Rudely, my gaze flicks down to his soft lips, and I remember the way they feel on my skin.
“Don’t be stubborn with me,” he murmurs, and his breath caresses my cheek before his kisses it. “It kind of makes me even more attracted to you.”
“Are you intentionally seducing me right now?”
“I am distracting you from the fact you’re being pick-pocketed.”
I blink.
He lands back in his seat with my phone.
I slap a hand against the skirt pocket in my dress, and my brain flashes error messages. I didn’t even feel him steal my phone. What? How does he know how to do that? Why was it so effective? “I’ll have you and all your faerieness know that is not healthy relationship behavior. Besides, it’s locked. I didn’t set up facial recognition, so it’s a pin, and you don’t have it.” Unless part of a dream eater’s power is carousing in a person’s mind and getting whatever information they want…which for the record I did not see outlined in my comprehensive folder.
“Meda is a monster.” He unlocks my phone. “She told me the pin a few weeks ago, just in case I’d need it. I told her it wasn’t kind to memorize someone’s attempt at privacy. She asked me if I’d already memorized it. I chased her around the house.” He taps casually on my phone as his eyes narrow. “I think we had pancakes after.”
I am incredibly out of my depth. The power discrepancy here is concerning.
