I’m not the only one eyeing the others as we listen to her.
“Dear, what are you saying today?” Ellie asks.
“Are you putting a spell on us?” Tobias asks, narrowing his eyes.
Skylar laughs. “No. I’m reciting theJabberwockypoem by Lewis Carroll in German in an effort to learn German.”
“I think one would start with common words in everyday conversations,” Paul says, chuckling.
“I thought you were learning French,” James says.
“Yeah, I’m done with that one.”
“You gave up?”
Skylar grins. “No. I already learned it. C’était l'actualité de la semaine dernière. Essayez de suivre!”
The room looks around, trying to see if anyone else understood those words. Skylar just grins and begins reciting a poem already made up of nonsense in German again. We listen to her and somehow, there’s a rhythm to her recitationthat makes me push a little harder. When she’s through the first round, she taps the up arrow on her machine and begins jogging. She’s moved on to the periodic table, and her recitation is becoming more rapid.
Arush laughs under his breath as we all somehow pick up our momentum.
There’s no more conversation as we listen to Skylar’s brilliance. Learning another language isn’t the limit of her amazing mind. The things she does and knows, and the ones she craves to learn, are like an ever-growing mountain. It gets higher and higher, the peak never within reach because her hunger for knowledge never wanes.
I realize I can’t wait to see what she does as an adult. What impossibilities will she make possible? What unsolvable mysteries will she discover the answer to? What empires will she conquer?
As much as I think I might like a chance on a different team, one that plays cohesively, leaving this condo building and the people who make it up will suck big time. Arizona might be where almost all my friends are, but this building is where my community is.
Neither is my home. Not to get corny or cliché, but when I look at Arush, I know we’ll make a home together no matter where we are. The only thing that matters is that we’re together.
CHAPTER 28
ARUSH
Fingers brush my forehead,pulling me from sleep and making my eyes flutter open. The room is dark. I can only make out the vague image of Julian’s shape in front of me. It takes several blinks to clear enough sleep fog from my brain to see that there’s a dim light coming from the bathroom.
“What’s wrong?” I murmur.
“Nothing’s wrong,” he says quietly. His fingers still moving through my hair make my eyes flutter closed again. “Open your eyes, Arush.”
I love the sound of his voice. I can hear warmth in it. Fondness. Maybe a little amusement right now.
My eyes open, trying to get a clear view of him.
“Come on. I have something to show you.”
“Now?” I ask, already struggling to make my muscles work to sit up. “Something’s wrong?”
He chuckles. “No. Nothing at all.”
I’m not sure why I need to get up if nothing’s wrong, but I struggle to do as he asks of me. He has a set of sweats on the corner of the bed and urges me to get into them. Julian even makes sure I take a pee break before leading me out of the bedroom.
Then he’s kneeling in front of me, tying my sneakers onto my feet, and placing a beanie on my head. The days aren’t ridiculously cold at the moment, but once the sun goes down, they get chilly. And I swear, there’s an ever-present wind.
Which makes sense, as Chicago is known worldwide as theWindy City.
Julian has me leaning into his side in the elevator and then he’s tucking me into the passenger seat of the car. It’s dark out. The time reads twenty of five.In the morning. I can’t even fathom why we’re driving somewhere right now, and my brain is simply not awake enough to try.
I try to watch the city in the dark of night, lit almost brightly with streetlamps and building lights. We wind down the streets, stop at lights, and keep moving. My eyelids are heavy, and my blinks slow until they stop completely and I doze.
