“You guys, come check this out!”
“You better not make anything explode, Red…”
March didn’t answer, though. He simply looked atmewhile I stared at the metal petals opening more and more, until we could see the middle of the flower made of a metal mesh painted yellow.
That wasn’t all, though. On the inside of the petals, words were engraved in a beautiful cursive handwriting:Almost Always, Stay Until Never, You in Every Hour, Chime no. 6—and on and on it went on all twelve petals.
“The songs,” I said in wonder—they were titles of songs.
“Go ahead, pick one to play,” March said, and I was already reaching out a hand as the others leaned closer, towering over us to better see, asking questions neither of us even heard.
“I’ll warn you, though,” March said, a second before I made my pick. “If it plays, I’m going to ask you to dance with me.”
My poor heart.
Pulling my lip between my teeth, I touched the petal that said,You In Every Hour.Something about that title, though it wasn’t a song I’d heard before. None of them were.
The music started a second later, straight from the flower’s center.
Cheers. Claps. Screams from the other Hands as the melody spread into every corner of the room, and it wasloud,like it was coming from a large speaker somewhere.
Time’s Teeth, I didn’t know the melody, had never heard the voice of the woman singing the lyrics, but it was the best song I had ever heard in my life.
The others were already dancing.
A hand stretched in front of me. “May I have the honor?”
How am I still in solid form?
“Yes, you may.”Today and tomorrow and every day after.
I put my hand over his, and March didn’t hesitate. He pulled me to my feet like I weighed nothing, then wrapped his arm around my waist tightly. Then he brought my hand over his other shoulder and closed his over my knuckles. The mischievous grin on him spoke words that might not even exist yet.
I laughed. “Youknewit would work, didn’t you.” It wasn’t even a question.
“Maybe I did and maybe I didn’t,” he said—he absolutely did. “Do you like the music?”
I nodded too many times. “I adore it.” It wasn’t fast or slow, just the perfect spot in between. You could dance to it, definitely—everyonein the room was dancing—and you could sit and listen as well.
“So, you like dancing,” March said, eyes squinted a little bit.
“Well, I…” I’d never really liked dancing per se, but…at the risk of my cheeks melting off my face, I said, “Tonight I do.” I liked the way his arm was secured around my waist. How his hand held mine. How his breath felt against my lips. How he looked down at me like he wanted to study me, analyze me, know every inch of me like nobody ever had before.
Who are you?I wanted to ask but didn’t need to. I had the feeling I was going to find out soon.
“Tonight, I do, too,” March said. “Tonight, I seem to like a lot of things.”
The gears in my stomach were turning overtime. “What things?” I asked, knowing full well what the answer was going to be, but needing to hear it anyway.
I was neverthis girl.In fact, thinking back now, whenever my friends had told me about talks with their boyfriends orgirlfriends, I’d always cringed a little bit inwardly. It had felt so fake, so unnatural—and now?
Now March was talking and looking at me like that, and I was a different person altogether. Like he’d changed me within a day, which was perfectly absurd.
“Just things. Like the look on your face when you’re thinking. I never know whether you’ll start running or punch someone in the throat any second,” he said, and my jaw hit the floor.
“I don’tlook like that!”
Did I, though?
