“IfI ascend.” Dez shouldn’t have spent so much of her day on Asher’s Lifeline. She barely finished Iris’s film, and she never found the scene of the birth of Iris’s son she wanted to include.
She squints at Eri. “What do you mean about Rafe not knowing what hit him?”
The bartender leans forward and lowers her voice. “If ever it seems like he holds all the cards, he doesn’t. He needs you as much as you need him.”
They hold each other’s gazes long enough for the intensity to bristle across Dez’s skin. What does Eri mean? Before she can ask, Jet slides onto the barstool next to her.
“I was hoping I’d catch you,” he says. “You haven’t attended a single club meeting.”
“Those are real?” Dez says. “I thought after the midterm, everything else fell away. We don’t even go to class anymore.”
“Haven’t you ever seen any dark academia movies?”
“I watchedDead Poets Societywith my brother.”
“Then you know the students under the most pressure require the darkest and most decadent recreation,” Jet says. “We meet every Thursday to blow off steam and discuss aesthetic quandaries. It’ll make you a better filmmaker.”
“I’m so behind in my work. I don’t think I have the time.”
Jet leans in. “Don’t be afraid to ask for help.”
“Oh, I’ve asked.”
All at once, Jet seems completely attuned to their conversation, spinning to face Dez on his stool. “Has Rafe been neglecting you?”
Dez fears she’s said too much without really saying anything at all.
“He’s just been busy.”
“Of course,” Jet says. “With the frags.”
“What’s Acheron doing with the frags, anyway?” Dez asks, but Jet’s signaling the bartender, as if he didn’t hear her.
“What’s your poison, Jet?” Eri asks.
“I’ll have what she’s having,” Jet says, nodding at the four drinks in front of Dez. “Look, I know you must feel guilty—”
“Guilty?”
“About the films you don’t finish each day. They don’t stop dying, of course. And then the rest of us have to pick up your slack.”
“No one told me that.”
“Rafe’s not the only one here who can help you, Dez.” He smiles at her, his dichromatic eyes twinkling. “All you have to do is ask.”
“Dez, bring the drinks!” Simon calls from a booth across the bar. “Oh, hi, Jet!”
Dez waves at Simon, at Esther and Yael in the booth with him. She turns back to Jet. “But you’re working with Simon.”
Jet lifts a shoulder, sips his drink. “Things can change in a flash.”
She nods, thanks Eri, then grabs her drinks and walks away to find her roommates at their booth.
“Dez, sit,” Esther says. “We’re talking J-horror. Simon and I can’t decide whetherbakemonooryureihave more terrifying cinematic potential—”
“It’s a question of shape-shifters or vengeful spirits,” Simon decodes for Dez.
Dez hasn’t had the time or energy to think about real movies in months. Before Acheron, she would have loved to nerd out in the conversation. Now she shakes her head. “I don’t know.”
