A light lit behind Gremma’s eyes. “Youdoknow him.” She said the words with an almost childlike glee, as if overjoyed to have found Dee’s deep, dark secret.
Oh, if only.
“Yes, but he is not my dealer,” said Dee.
Gremma squinted through the window. “Really? Then… I don’t know. Bookie? Secret crime lord?” She wriggled her hips in a vague motion. “Man of the night?”
“We… sort of know each other through an acquaintance.”
Gremma’s face spoke volumes. “Sure.Well, I’d recommend putting on a shirt before you go out to meet him.”
Dee was wearing a shirt when she ventured out of her dorm. She also put on her second-best cardigan, skinny jeans, and flip-flops—hoping that perhaps if she dressed normally, maybe she could trick the universe into acting normally. Her knitted heart was shoved in her cardigan’s pocket.
The courtyard was a small stretch of concrete and potted plants between the Whiteaker and Grover dorms, mostly used by the seniors to try to sneak a smoke. The flower beds smelled of old ashes.
James leaned against an overlarge flowerpot, checking his nails. When he heard her approach, he offered her a friendly grin. “Glad to see word reached you. I forgot my phone and somehow throwing pebbles at random windows seemed like a losing strategy.”
“My roommate thinks I’m running drugs,” said Dee flatly. “And that you’re my dealer.”
James blinked. “At least she thought I looked enterprising.”
“She said you looked homeless.”
James straightened the sleeves of his orange leather jacket. “It’s vintage.”
“You’re going to get arrested for loitering,” she said. “What are you doing here?”
He nodded at the dormitory. “You free to leave?”
“It’s Saturday,” she replied.
He tilted his head. “You know, that’s not really an answer.”
“This is boarding school, not prison,” she said. “It’s the weekend—I’ve got parental permission to leave.”
“Ah.” He flashed her a grin, one that was far too chipper foreight in the morning. “Perfect.” He offered her his elbow, as ifthis were some old movie, but she made no move to take it.
“What are you doing?”
“At the moment, attempting to be gallant and gentlemanly. And apparently failing at it.” He dropped his arm and instead ran a hand through his rumpled hair. “Look, I’ve got to run an errand for the Daemon and this particular task is easier with more than one pair of hands. It’s not dangerous or even particularly interesting.”
She crossed her arms. “What is it?”
“Rock collecting,” he said, utterly deadpan. “Now, you don’t have to come with if you don’t want to. But I thought you might have questions you didn’t want to ask with Cora and Cal around. This would be an opportunity.”
She was about to refuse him—but James was smiling, sohopeful, and it suddenly occurred to her that he didn’t want to run this errand alone. He wanted someone with him.
Dee was too well acquainted with loneliness not to recognize it in another.
She sighed. So much for her relaxing Saturday.
They drove out of Portland. She watched the familiar sights slide by, in hues of gray and blue and green. Portland was a sprawl of city encroaching on tangled suburbs, but she liked it. There was a quiet hum of activity, a sense that there was always something going on beneath the surface. She rapped her fingers absentmindedly on the car’s door as James drove. He was a restful car companion—he didn’t blast the radio or try to roll down the windows.
“Where are we going?” Dee asked.
“A park,” he answered. “Don’t worry, I’ll have you back long before curfew.” He slid her a look, then his gaze went back to the road. “Speaking of which—you managed to get into your dorm all right after that void?”
Dee grimaced.
