When Cyrus glares at me, I shrug. I’m not sorry. “Can’t help it,” I say. “I’m hooked. I dream about her at night, you know? A sure sign—ow!” I turn to Aurora, who’s just whacked me on the shoulder. “What was that for? All I ever do is treat you well?—”
I jerk my foot out of the way just in time to avoid the stomp she’s trying to aim at it, and then I grin. She’s trying to glare at me, but I can see a smile trying to break free over her lips, too, and it grows when I speak. “Try again and see what happens.”
“I like him,” Poppy says happily, and Aurora and I freeze, turning to look at Poppy. “You’re the guy from the holding cell, right?”
She addresses this question to me, but Cyrus’s eyes widen.
“Holding cell?”
“How did you know about that?” India says, and then she whirls on Jules. “Did you tell her?”
Juliet slaps her hand over her mouth, looking sheepish.
“And that’s our cue,” Aurora says quickly. “Thanks, Cy.” She pauses. “You suck a little bit less today.”
He sends her a rude hand gesture, but it’s halfhearted at best and accompanied by the most fleeting of smiles.
It’s difficult to say, but I think they might have just exchanged grudgingI love yous in their own language.
“Do you have your money?” Aurora says to me, and then she gestures at the announcer, who’s standing in the midst of the participants with a clipboard and a harried expression. “You need to pay first.” She pauses, smirking. “Eight hundred dollars, huh?”
“Don’t get a big head. Two hundred is from your brother, and some is from Juliet and India too.” I hand over my money to the man, and he scribbles down my information. Then Aurora’s hand is around my wrist, tugging me away.
“We’ll talk about the holding cell later,” Cyrus calls to her as she drags me along.
“We absolutely will not,” she replies over her shoulder.
I stumble along after her, my laughter ready at my lips as she clips across the stone, past a few curious onlookers, rounding the side of the stage and then proceeding to the back.
“I didn’t realize you were so eager to take advantage,” I say. “But I don’t know if I’m comfortable with something like this in public. Don’t want to end up in the holding cell again?—”
I bump into her as she comes to a sudden halt, whirling around and glaring up at me. It’s an expression I can see mainly because the moon is bright in the sky, and the string lights overhead glow once more now that the auction is finished.
“Are you insane?” Aurora says, looking left and right. “What if someone heard you?”
I open my arms in a sweeping gesture. “Very true. We’re surrounded by people.”
There’s no one back here. Not a person in sight—just us in our little sliver of the town square, two dark shops on one side and the raw back of the stage on the other. I could hunch down and crawl beneath the platform from here, and the back cloth looms high, blocking much of the sound from the rest of the event.
Aurora’s expression settles, her frame relaxing when she sees that we’re alone. Then she looks back to me.
“How was my glaring?” she says.
“Amazing. Ten out of ten.”
“Thank you.” She tosses her hair over her shoulders. “I was going forI will cut you.”
“You delivered.” I take a step closer. “Now—do you want to tell me why you dragged me frantically away from your family? I was making great inroads, by the way. I think I’m wearing Cyrus down.”
“The key is not to wear Cyrus down”—she holds up one finger—“butPoppy.” With a shrug, she goes on. “If you can get Poppy to like you, it’s only a matter of time for Cyrus too.”
“Insider information; I appreciate it.” I move closer still, until she’s close enough that I can wrap my arms gently around her waist. “I’m going to hug you now, because I want to, and I can.”
“Oh,” she says, a little noise of surprise.
“We’ve never hugged before, and it sounds like fun, doesn’t it?”
She snorts at this, but she also slides her arms tentatively over my shoulders and around my neck.
