“Your heart’s on the line, too.”
Blake gripped his hands into fists, glancing out of the corner of his eye self-consciously.
“Celeste—”
“Look, you don’t have to say anything.I can tell you love him,” Celeste told Blake, tone matter-of-fact.Blake flushed, glancing away from Celeste pointedly.He opened his mouth to retort, but the words died on his lips.He didn’t have the heart to rebuke their claim.
Celeste continued: “And I can tell you’re a really good person, too.A reallykindperson.You don’t deserve to have your heart jerked around like this.You don’t deserve to have that sort of responsibility or fear in your life.
“So I guess what I’m trying to say with all this rambling is… I’m sorry.For all of this.And—and I really do believe in you, okay?That you can keep him from… yeah.”
Then why do you sound like he’s already gotten his death-sentence?Blake thought, doubt trickling down into his stomach like cold water.
“That’s why we’re going to San Francisco tomorrow,” he supplied, trying his best to lift Celeste’s spirits as much as his own.“We found that girl he was talking about last night and I think she may be a cousin or a sister.We haven’t gotten in contact with her, but she’ll definitely know where he died,” he reached out to settle a hand on Celeste’s shoulder.“Maybe meeting with her will help him remember his past life; that way he can tell us his dying wish.”
“Oh.”Celeste doubled over in relief, cuffing at their eyes before scowling up at Blake.They pushed themself up onto their elbows.Bonbon began to grumble and growl once more as he was jostled again and again.“Oh thankfuck.Why the hell didn’t youleadwith that, DeLuca?!”
“You seemed like you had a few things you needed to get off of your chest,” Blake began.“I didn’t want to cut you off—”
Celeste jabbed a finger at him, doing just that.
“Zipit!”they snapped.“For Christ’s sake, I just about had a heart attack!Okay, here’s the deal—here’s how you’re going to make it up to me: tomorrow, you’re gonna take the car and take that boy out for the best damn day of his life, you hear me?!”
Blake frowned at Celeste.He had a feeling about what had happened between them and Ryan the night before.“Are yousureyou’re okay?”
“No—yes—UGH!Shutup,” Celeste snapped, throwing themself back down onto the couch with a violent bounce.Bonbon yipped at them, snapping at the blanket that covered their legs.“You, too!”Celeste hissed over their shoulder at the dog.They shot a glare up at Blake, cheek pressed into the couch.Bonbon settled back in with a disgruntled noise.
Blake laughed, turning towards the door to leave.He paused, glancing over his shoulder at Celeste, who was still attempting to become one with their blanket nest.He didn’t want to interfere with his friends’ relationships, but…
“Hey,” Blake said, tapping on the doorframe.“About what happened last night…”
“Wha’ ‘bout ‘ih?”Celeste’s muffled voice came from the couch.They’d stuffed a handful of saltines in their mouth.
“Is everything all right with you and Ry—?”
“Save it,” Celeste cut him off with a sniffle.
21
To Blake’s immense surprise, Matt shuffled into the kitchen at ten in the morning, looking about ready to fall right back asleep.He suspected that the reason he was even upright had something to do with the fact that he was leaning one hundred percent of his body weight on Noel.
Blake, Marin, and Celeste were all gathered at the island—the latter seated at the counter, dressed in their sunglasses and throw blanket couture, struggling through a bowl of rice porridge.
“You’re up early,” Blake quipped, raising his eyebrows.“Do you have work later?”
“I have a spotlight in AluminumSiren’s charity stream at noon,” Matt explained, hopping up onto a bar stool beside Celeste and flopping his torso down onto the granite countertop, where he began to flail his arms.“I need food.”
“There’s some congee on the stove,” Marin told him, gesturing towards where it was simmering.He perked up in pride.“Blake made it almost all by himself.”
“Goddamn, it actually looks edible!”Matt hopped up from the counter and wandered over to the pot to peruse the contents.“Broth and riceispretty hard to mess up, though.”
Blake deflated.
“Thanks, asshole,” he groused in Matt’s direction.
Matt cackled in response before he glanced over his shoulder at Noel, who was hovering in the entryway, chewing the side of his fingernail.“Would you like some, Monsieur Tremblay?”
“Yeah—if that’s okay?”Noel asked, glancing around those gathered with no small amount of nervousness.
