“Are you cold?”
“Nope,” said Onny. Her teeth chattered. “I’m sweating in this infernal heat; can’t you tell?”
Byron sighed and walked to her side. Even this close, he emanated warmth, which was strange, given that up until now, Onny had been sure that his soul was mostly made up of cement. He lifted up his arm in invitation. Onny watched him warily.
“What happened to the whole ‘morally depraved’ thing?” she asked.
“Who says this isn’t part of it?” retorted Byron.
Onny watched him a moment longer. Her ears were beginning to hurt. With a huff, she sidled close against him. Byron carefully placed his arm around her, and warmth flowed into her. Onny shuddered, and Byron tightened his grip. This close, she could smell him, the clean laundry of his clothes, the faint clovelike spice from the flower tucked into his pocket. Beyond the silk screen, the stars looked like crushed diamonds shaken out onto the thick rug of night.
“It’s… beautiful,” said Byron.
His mouth twisted on the last word, like it was reluctantly pulled from him.
“I know,” said Onny. “My dad and I had it built for my momfor their last wedding anniversary.” She smiled at the memory. “He loves surprising her with stuff. She acts like she doesn’t like it, but she totally does.”
“It sounds like you guys are close,” said Byron after a moment.
“We are,” said Onny. “Are you close to your parents?”
Onny could feel him stiffen under the question.
“My mom, yes,” he said. “My dad? Not so much. We essentially stopped speaking once he gambled away all our savings.”
“Oh,” said Onny, a pit of sorrow opening up in her gut. “I’m so sorry.…”
“Don’t be,” said Byron flatly. “It’s for the best. My dad used to have this way of always pulling you in with a story.” He didn’t look at her, but she could see his profile facing the sky, a new looseness to him, like the dark of the folly room had freed a part of him. “Dad would tell us our lives were going to change because he’d seen something like an omen of a dove on a telephone pole. Or he’d talk about how he finally found the right astrologer to read his horoscope and today was going to be the big day. The day everything becamegood.” Byron laughed a little, but it was a hollow sound. “We probably would’ve believed him forever if we didn’t run out of food.”
Onny thought back to the first time she’d met Byron… the scowl on his face when she’d offered to read his tarot cards. The way his lip curled when he uttered the line that would make him her mortal enemy forever:
I find cosmic bullshit the worst kind of pretension.
At the time, she’d thought it was coldhearted arrogance. Looking at Byron now, Onny felt a strange lump in her throat.After that first interaction, everything else about him became tainted with condescension. The careful way he dressed, that aura of solemn maturity, even the relentless way he’d brought himself to the near top of their class.Oh,thought Onny. She thought she’d understood who Byron Frost was.… Now she felt like she’d never really seen him in the first place.
Outside the folly, Onny heard a shushed hissing sound. “I hear something!”
Byron’s arm fell from her shoulder, and the two of them dropped to the ground. Onny’s heart began to thump wildly. Byron held out the flower sprig to her, and Onny raised it up in the air, getting it ready to witness a kiss between two classmates. She hadn’t given much thought to what she would doafterthe flower saw the kiss, though.
At best they would be shocked to see Onny and Byron waving up at them from the floor. At worst they would expire on the spot from pure shock.
What if they, uh,didn’tnotice Onny and Byron? Would she have to do something like yell: “MAKE ROOM FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT,” and split?
But as it would turn out, there was no reason for her to worry about that at all. Because on the other side of the folly curtains weren’t her classmates… but two adults. Adults that she instantly recognized the moment they started speaking.
“Hello?” said Mayor Grimjoy awkwardly. “Now… I…uh… I realize the reason for you kids coming all the way out here isnotto get caught, but um…”
“We are screwed,” whispered Byron.
“Iknowcarnal knowledge is a thing of wonder, but this is very inappropriate,” continued Mayor Grimjoy.
Onny cast around in the dark, her heart racing. She would rather set herself on fire than get caught by the townmayor.
“Carnal knowledge?” scoffed his husband, Mr. Brightside. “Listen to me: whatever you’re doing in there,don’t.”
“I, um, I regret to let you know that you will have to sit down with the principal for a meeting, since this event is technically cosponsored by the town and the school…” said Mayor Grimjoy sheepishly. “Andyou’ll have to make a formal apology to the Diamante family for trespassing on their grounds in the act of, um—”
“Attaining carnal knowledge?” suggested Mr. Brightside.
