Keep ur bags packed.
I’m standing on the patio by the wall, looking out at the view and thinking about the email from Cassandra when Corina calls to me. “I see you, Plugzer. In every single way, I see you.”
I freeze. “See me what?” I walk over slowly, trying to turn my thoughts away from my fear of having to run. Now that Corina and I can communicate, we’re not just in each other’s hearts, we’re in each other’s business. Corina feels me now, knows I’m hiding something. She can feel me being more watchful than I need to be. She can feel my pangs of anxiety when thoughts about the email from Cassandra or what my Voice said bubble up.
“See you standing.” She smiles up at me. “See you thinking.”
Her smile makes me smile. She flops down on a couch by the fire pit and I slide down onto it next to her, our legs touching, our shoulders touching. If someone walked in they would probably think we were sitting a little too close, but right now it’s worth it just to feel her heat, the resilience of her body. “What am I thinking?” I ask.
“If I knew what you were thinking all the time there wouldn’t be any need to talk to you, would there?”
“You’d still talk to me.”
She raises her eyebrows. “I would?”
I nod. “I’m too good-looking to ignore.”
She starts to laugh, then gets serious. “I’ll give you that.” Her hand sneaks onto my leg and squeezes. “But I still want to know what’s bothering you.”
“It’s . . . nothing.” She stares at me. “Something that happened in Vegas.”
She bunches up her face. “Someday, when this shit’s all through and we’re back to real life, you are going to tell me everything. You know that, right?”
Bring your girlfriend, too.
I nod. “Yeah.”
She scoots away from me, turns to look at me square in the eyes. “There!” She points at me. “Right there. It’s about me. I know it has something to do with me because you got dark right there when I said that.” She starts to wag her finger. “I heard it.”
I shake my head hard. “It’s not about you, it’s . . .” But it is about her, at least partly. I sigh, look at her. I think about maybe telling her everything, but I can’t figure how—I wouldn’t even know where to begin. “I can’t tell you, but it’s not about you. It’s about us, this place, what’s coming.”
I feel her fear. It settles in over both of us like sweat.
“We’re gonna be okay,” I say, believing it when I say it so she’ll know it’s true. “You and me are going to make it through. Together.” I work hard to try and fill myself with hope. “Trust me.”
She looks at me for a while. Her fear melts into uncertainty, which is slowly replaced by hope. “I do trust you, Plugzer. I trust you so much it scares me.”
It does scare her. I know because I’m scared, too.