Cosmo pushed curls out of his eyes and scrubbed at the goosebumps on his arms. Micah must have thought he was cold, because he pulled off his jacket and draped it over Cosmo’s shoulders. The sleeves of his button-down were rolledup, showcasing his solid forearms, so Cosmo didn’t push the jacket back at him.
“I wonder if all the ghosts people have ever experienced were just a timeline tangle,” Micah said. “That’s kind of sad, because maybe there isn’t an afterlife for us or any of the people in this cemetery. They’re just dead. Then again, that means they’re still existing at multiple points on the string, and will be forever.”
“I don’t believe that. I had a dear friend who could sense ghosts, and she knew for certain that they were the spirits of the dead.”
“Déjà.”
Cosmo stared. “You know her?” Lemon Disco’s art scene was tight, but Cosmo wasn’t sure how Micah would know her if he never went to parties or gallery showings.
“She did a cleansing in the studio when the disturbances started. Told me I didn’t have a ‘rowdy ghost.’ Which makes sense now that I know you’re alive.”
Déjà had done a cleansing to get rid of Cosmo. Wasn’t that just fitting? Cosmo said, “Did she tell you we weren’t friends anymore?”
“Yeah. And I’m sorry.” Micah scooted a little closer. He looked like he might say more, then shook his head and finally took a sip of his wine.
Cosmo topped off his own. His past self was still friends with her. They were still going to parties and drinking milkshakes and painting each other’s toenails in the living room of her apartment. It didn’t bring him much consolation, because her absencenowstill actively hurt. And it meant that some version of Cosmo was still crying over Zedd. Some version of him was still breaking up with Déjà. Some version of Micah was still being beaten within an inch of his life.
Crows chattered in the trees, the sigh of the wind cutting through the lull in their conversation.
Micah picked at his sandwich, then brushed off his hands. “Want to hear a secret?”
“You know what to say to a boy. Do tell.”
“I dial random numbers and make the person on the other end describe themselves to me. That’s how I’ve done most of the portraits on my wall.”
Cosmo gasped. “Micah! How peculiar.”
A flush crawled up his neck, and he chuckled. “I don’t know why, but I thought you might like knowing that.”
“I do!” Cosmo imagined answering an unknown number and Micah’s breathy voice coming through the line. Requesting that Cosmo talk about his body in detail so he could turn him into a piece of his gorgeous, coercive art. He shifted and pressed his thighs together. Leggings were definitely not the best choice today. “I want you to draw me this way.”
Micah’s blush deepened, now the color of his shirt. “‘Draw me like one of your French telemarketers.’”
“Will you? Call me this evening and say to me whatever it is you say to them.”
Micah’s throat clicked as he swallowed. “I’d love to.”
His right pupil was a small black point in the light of the afternoon sun. The other was an event horizon, swallowing the amber of his iris. Cosmo was in danger of being pulled in, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to be rescued.
He slid his hand over Micah’s knee, and Micah pulled in an audible breath. His gaze hung on Cosmo, and he raked his teeth across his bottom lip. From someone else, these would be clear signs of desire. Micah was romantically attracted to Cosmo, but he had no idea if that meant Micah was interested in kissing. If he wasn’t, Cosmo would look foolish, but he couldn’t resist leaning forward and tilting his chin in invitation, letting his eyelids fall as he parted his mouth.
His phone let out a shrill jingle.
Micah sat back, and a crow launched from a tree. Damn it.
He thumbed down the ringer without looking at the caller. “Sorry.”
“You don’t need to see who it is?” Micah asked.
“I know it isn’t you, and you’re the only person I want a phone call from at the moment.” But thinking about that too hard right now in these leggings was going to turn the date inappropriate really quickly.
Cosmo stood and picked up the lilies. “I’m getting a bit of a cramp. Do you want to walk with me and place these on the graves?”
“Yeah.”
They strolled past chipped and discolored headstones with motifs of skulls, angels, and crosses. Cosmo set a lily before adrunkenly-leaning marker. Micah stopped at a stone that had broken off its mounting and cracked in half. Weeds sprouted through the division, and chunks of sandstone littered the surrounding area.
“That’s a shame.” Micah draped a lily across the broken marker.
