“No,” she says, glaring up at me. “Get out of my house.”
I stare at her for a moment that stretches so long and taut, it becomes unbearable. She stares right back, eyes flashing with fury. Whoisshe?
“Elise, go!”
***
I step out of Audrey’s cottage, into the night.
I dial Mati, stumbling down the sidewalk.
He answers immediately. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I say, but my voice sounds unsteady. “Are you home?”
“No. I walked to town. I needed air.”
I need air, too. And I need him, because right now, he’s the only person capable of mending the gash torn through me. “Will you meet me?”
“Where?”
Not my house. I’m sure Audrey’s on the phone with my mom, and I’m sure she’s reporting exactly what she walked in on, which means Mom is mid-freak-out. As if on cue, my phone beeps with an incoming call.
“There’s a park on Raspberry Street,” I tell Mati, letting the call go to voice mail.
“The citadel made of wood?”
I smile despite myself. “If a citadel is the same as a castle, then yes. I can be there in ten.”
“I can be there in five.”
elise
I find him sitting on the ground in front of the deserted play structure, illuminated by the glow of the overhead streetlamps. He’s hunched over his notebook, pen in hand, scribbling furiously. His face is a valley of shadows.
I approach him cautiously, conscious of the barriers we demolished earlier, before Audrey interrupted the kiss to end all kisses. My lips tingle at the memory and, distracted, I step on a twig, splitting it with acrack.
Mati’s head jerks up. He spots me and springs up off the ground, simultaneously pushing the notebook and pen into his pocket. A moment of heedful indecision restrains us. I attempt a smile, but it’s fragmented, a half-baked effort because the sight of him, all wounded and unsure, fills my eyes with tears.
He rushes toward me, reaching out to grasp my hands. “Elise,” he says, “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. This is my fault—all of it.”
“No. I should have known better.”
“Known better than what? Audrey wasterribleto you. I’m so mad I want to pummel her. She’s messed up because of what happened to my brother, and she talks without thinking, and we surprised her, and I—I hate that you had to hear that. I’m just… I’m so sorry.”
He quiets me with a hand on my cheek. “Don’t be.”
My body inclines toward him because now that I know what close-to-Mati feels like, his nearness is a craving. I place my palm flat on his chest, just over his beating heart; it’s impossiblenotto touch him. “Thanks for meeting me,” I whisper before I get carried away.
He nods toward a nearby bench. “Should we sit?”
I consider, and then I’m struck by a stroke of genius. “Not there.”
I lead him toward a set of low steps and up onto the play structure. I pick my way through the darkness, across a row of smooth planks, to the drawbridge. I stop just before, extending a foot to give the bridge a shake. “Think you can make it across?”
He raises an eyebrow. “I’ve never seen a park quite like this.”
