“Wow,” I say. The harbor stretches out below us, shadowy boats bobbing gently on the black water.
“I know, right?” Luke is smiling up at the stars.
After a minute, I can finally identify the difference between the water and the sky, and I look for the Big Dipper, the only constellation I can locate with any confidence. I find it spilling itself over the ocean in a tangle of dimmer stars.
Luke lifts his arm and points right where I’m looking. “Big Dipper.”
“Hey,” I say, pouting, “I saw it first.”
Luke laughs, then sits down on the scratchy shingles and lies back. I sit carefully next to him, wondering if the warmth between us will last this time.
“Lie down.” He scoots over and pats the space next to him. I tell myself to stop thinking so much and lie back. The wind settles a little once I’m flat, and the sky yawns overhead. Luke moves closer still, his left leg resting flush against my right, his breath hot on my cheek as he points again and calls out Gemini.
“How did you find that?” I’m genuinely impressed. “I can’t even see what you’re pointing at.”
“Here.” Luke takes my hand, extends my pointer finger, and draws a line from the bottom right corner of the upside-down Dipper to the top left corner. Then he guides my hand gently, out, out, out, until he stops on one of two brighter stars. “This is Castor, and to the right is Pollux, and they’re the twins. Look for this U shape.”
“Cool.” I trace the shape with my free hand, and move to take my hand back, but he holds it tighter.
“Hold on,” he says, pulling my hand to his chest. He splays our hands flat, and I can feel the faintthump-thumpof his heart. My own is still racing a bit from the climb up the ladder.I turn to face him. “I wanted to tell you that I talked to Izzy. Weweresort of together, but we’re not anymore.”
“So you broke up?”
Luke nods, and I take in his familiar face, the small scar under his left eye. My eyes catch on his bottom lip, which is trapped in his teeth. He releases it and says, “I like someone else.”
My stomach sinks. “Oh.” I swallow and look away.
Luke lets out a strangled laugh. “Sera. It’s you.” He says it clear and slow. “I like you, Sera. I have for two years, and I think it was killing me keeping it in.”
Beneath me the roof suddenly feels thin, like I might fall through it and then through the floor of Frappie’s, all the way to the center of the earth.
“Really?”
“Really,” Luke says.
I turn and look at him. He’s waiting for a reply like I’m holding the answer to the universe. I repeat what he’s said in my head.Luke LIKES me. LUKE likes me. LUKE likes ME.
I want to say it back so badly, but a flash of fear makes my chest seize.
I can’t just lie there, so I stand up and immediately feel woozy and out of breath. I close my eyes against the swirling spots racing across my vision. I wait for my heart to settle, but it won’t. My watch beeps as it registers an irregular heart rhythm.Crap.It hasn’t done that in months.
“Sera?” Luke’s at my side, but I can’t look at him. Both because I can’t believe this is happening and because EBE can’t calm down. She’s gasping and struggling and tripping overherself. When my watch beeps three times in a quick succession, I swear out loud. It’s called my mom and sent an alert to Dr.Lee.
“Sera? Are you okay?” Luke sounds frantic as he grabs my shoulders, like he’s trying to hold me in place, and oh, how I wish that were enough. I want to reassure him. I want to tell him so many things, but I can’t find the breath to do it. I open my eyes and find his in front of me. Even in the dark they shine a little green, like the ocean, or a portal out of this dimension. I tip forward into that swirl of green and black, hoping there will be something there to catch me.
Chapter Eighteen
Luke
As the EMTs lift Sera into the ambulance, I climb in too. I dial Abbi on my cell and leave a message when she doesn’t pick up.
“You’re not really supposed to come with us,” one of the EMTs says, but she’s already closing the door. She attaches an IV to Sera’s hand, takes her vitals, and taps notes into a tablet as the siren screams above us and we lurch into motion. I quickly sit on the bench next to the stretcher before I fall over and reach for Sera’s hand. She squeezes my trembling fingers, and I try to remember to breathe so I don’t pass out next.
At least Sera’s awake now, but her eyes are closed, her skin pale and clammy.
It all happened so fast. Sera dropping like a stone into my arms. Her watch beeping and beeping and beeping. Me frantically calling 911 and trying to answer their questions as calmly as I could.
“Does she have any medical conditions?” they asked.
