The Imitation Game ✓

THIRTY-FIVE | I DID SOMETHING BAD

Cora was fairly certain her blood pressure was about to spike as she left her apartment to go meet up with Simon.

Convincing him to come into town just a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving without making it sound like she needed to see him because something was wrong was a bit tricky. She ended up telling him that she really wanted to see an exhibition at the Met that was due to close soon and she thought he'd enjoy it more than her other friends would. It was only a partial lie—she did want to see the show, but Rasmus or Sie or even Anais would have been happy to go with her.

On the bright side, it would be nice to see him one more time before the chaos of the holidays ensued. She didn't always get to hang out with him all that much at Thanksgiving or Christmas since she was also trying to spend time with her parents, and this year, their performance schedule would only allow her to go home for forty-eight hours at most.

She knew that it might be an atrocious idea to wait until the very end of the day to spring the news about Rasmus on him, but Cora selfishly didn't want anything getting in the way of them enjoying their afternoon together. If she put him in a foul mood right at the beginning, the entire day was going to be miserable.

It was with this in mind that she plastered a smile onto her face as she exited the 86th Street subway station. It was another few blocks to the museum, but it was a pleasantly warm and sunny day for early November, so she didn't mind the short walk. She always enjoyed seeing corners of the city that were outside of her regular radius of orbit—you never ran out of things to explore in New York City.

Simon had somehow beat her to the Met and she could see him waiting for her on the front steps as she approached. His fair hair was rumpled in the breeze, his eyes squinting against the sun. Cora really couldn't tell if he was looking for her in the crowd or simply trying not to go blind.

She jogged over to meet him—knowing that they were going to be wandering around the museum for hours, she'd worn walking shoes—and smiled when he noticed her. "Long time, no see."

It was something they used to say as a joke when they'd meet up after school after not seeing each other since before first period. Now, of course, it was actually true, at least in a relative sense. Still, Cora knew plenty of friends who got to see one another a lot less often than she and Simon did, and she was grateful that they were never drifting too far apart.

Hopefully, that wasn't about to change.

"You ready?" he asked.

Her heart stuttered. "Why wouldn't I be?"

It sounded a little too defensive; Cora tried not to cringe at herself.

He paused, as if confused by her reply. "I just meant you have the tickets, right?"

"Oh," she said blandly. "Of course, they're right here..."

She quickly rummaged through her purse for her phone—how had it disappeared into the void so quickly?—and fished it out, opening the app where their tickets were waiting for them. They walked the rest of the way up the front steps side-by-side, Cora shoving her free hand into her jacket pocket to stop herself from nervously fidgeting with anything.

Simon surely noticed that something was up with her. He knew her like the back of his own hand, but at least for the immediate moment, he was being polite enough not to ask if anything was bothering her. But their knowledge of one another went both ways, and she knew Simon like the back of her own hand.

So it wasn't lost on her that something seemed to be up with him, too.

He was subtly shifting his weight from foot to foot, something he didn't regularly do unless he was feeling restless, as they moved forward in the line to have their tickets scanned. Maybe he'd just had too much coffee on the drive into town this morning; maybe he was just reflecting the energy that she was giving to him.